


We have each other

by RaindropDragon



Category: Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Characters will be added as they appear - Freeform, Fix-It, Fluff, Found Family, Hurt/Comfort, Not Beta Read, but this is still a feel good fic, everything goes according to plan, let them be happy, more angst than the author first intended
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-21
Updated: 2021-01-07
Packaged: 2021-03-04 07:53:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 20
Words: 41,955
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24846364
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RaindropDragon/pseuds/RaindropDragon
Summary: Searching for a home while being chased and not knowing where you're going is hard, but they're a family and the're going to figure it out, come hell or high water.A look at what could have been had the Oaks escape plan actually worked as intended.
Relationships: Kipo Oak & Lio Oak, Kipo Oak & Scarlemagne | Hugo, Kipo Oak & Song Oak, Kipo Oak & Wolf, Lio Oak & Scarlemagne | Hugo, Lio Oak/Song Oak, Song Oak & Scarlemagne | Hugo, Wolf & Oak family, Wolf & Scarlemagne | Hugo
Comments: 293
Kudos: 618





	1. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> No one knocks, an escape plan is set into motion

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, this is my very first fanfiction and also english isn't my first language  
> I hope you enjoy this anyway, it is entirely self indulgent

“Come here sweetheart. Come to Daddy. It’s okay.” Lio took the crying baby from his wife and started quietly humming to her. “Shhhhhhh, shhhhhh. It’s okay Kipo.”  
  
Almost immediately the baby calmed down and looked up at him, before grabbing his big hand in her tiny pink ones, cooing.  
  
“She’s perfect” Song commented from where she was gazing over Lios shoulder at her daughter with soft a soft look.  
  
“Just like her mom.” Lio said, glancing back at her with a smile.  
  
Suddenly little Kipo looked at her arm with a startled gaze, before stretching it out and, to Lios shock, grew fur and claws.  
  
“Honey look” he said, with wide eyes, gently taking his daughters paw into his hand.  
  
“Oh good. You’re seeing it, too.” said Song, equally wide eyed, “I thought I was just deliriously tired.”  
  
“Look at her little paw!” Lios shock had quickly transformed into excitement and he softly stroked the fur on Kipos arm, softer he said, “Guess we have a jaguar on our hands.”  
  
“Good thing” said Song, with the soft look back on her face, “Komodo dragon would’ve been hard to cuddle.”  
  
Lio chuckled.  
  
Kipo yawned, unconcerned with the adult’s conversation and put her head into her paw, closing her eyes, being born was exhausting after all.  
  
Song looked at her daughter again, adopting a more serious expression now, “She changes everything. She’ll make it safe for humans to live on the surface.”  
  
“Only if we can get her out of here.” Lio was now equally serious, his brows knitting together in concern. He looked down at his daughter, who was snoring softly in his arms, safely waddled in Hugo’s star blanket.  
  
“You’re right.” Song said, turning away, “I’ll go start packing.”  
  
“Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.” Lio grabbed Songs shoulder, and carefully pushed Kipo into her arms. “I’ll pack, and as soon as you’re well enough, we’ll get Hugo and go.”  
  
He touched her cheek softly, putting their foreheads together. Song looked at him lovingly. “Yeah, that sounds good.” With that she leaned back on the bed while Lio got up to grab their things.

~

I can’t hold her much longer! Take the picture!”  
  
Song was trying her best to keep Kipos tiny clawed paw away from her face, while the baby was wriggling and cooing in her arms.  
  
“I’m trying!” Lio said, adjusting himself and the camera where he was leaning against the headboard of the bed, next to his wife and daughter, “It’s hard to take a picture of yourself with this.”  
  
He looked at Song and Kipo, who got distracted from playing with her mother by her father’s voice and Lio managed to use the moment of calm to take the picture.

~

Shaking the picture gently Lio made his way over to the couch. “Aw, look how cute Mom and baby are” he said softly, sitting down next to his wife.  
  
Song looked over at the picture and her eyes softened, then she sighed looking sad “I wish I could frame this picture, but no one can ever see it.”  
  
Lio looked at her with the same sadness in his eyes, “I’ll break into the lab tonight for Hugo. Then we leave.” He said, putting a hand on her shoulder.  
  
He got up from the couch and went over to their secret compartment, hitting the button to open it on the way. Carefully he put the picture into their research journal, before putting it back down and closing the compartment again. Song, who had followed him over cradled the sleeping Kipo closer to her chest.  
  
“We should take another picture.” She said suddenly.  
  
“Once we’ve found somewhere to stay, one with Hugo in it, we can frame it and put it up in our new home!” She exclaimed excited now at the thought of having a picture of her little family, together and happy.  
  
Lio looked at her softly, “That sounds fantastic” he said and leaned over to kiss her.  
  
“Let’s finish up packing and then let’s go grab Hugo and get out of here, before Emilia gets too suspicious and decides to check on us.”

~~~

Night came fast, between making sure they had all their supplies and entertaining Kipo, Song and Lio were thoroughly distracted. However, with nightfall came the anxiety. This was the tricky part of their plan, getting Hugo out from under Dr. Emilia’s nose wouldn’t be easy, but Song and Lio refused to leave the mandrill behind, as he was basically their son, they had raised him and they would not give up on him, just because it would be easier.  
  
“Are we ready?” Lio asked, looking at Song, who had a backpack strapped to her back and had fashioned a second blanket into a little bag for Kipo, who was sound asleep, so she had use of both her hands if push came to shove.  
  
“We’re ready.” Song said with conviction, looking down at Kipo with a smile before looking back up at Lio again “Let’s go.”  
  
Lio nodded and removed the covering from the vent, he waved Song in. After they were both inside Lio replaced the cover, so as to not immediately betray their escape route.  
  
Song was moving slowly, leading the way. She kept one arm cradling Kipo, keeping her secure and trying to avoid jostling her around too much, so her sleep wouldn’t be disturbed.  
  
Not only for Kipos sake, since a crying baby in the vents would very likely attract attention.

They made their way through the vents as quietly as possible and finally, after what felt like hours, but was more likely 10 minutes they arrived at the vent that led to Hugo’s cell. Song looked through the vent covering into the room, it was blessedly empty, except for Hugo, who was curled up into a ball in a corner of his cage.  
  
Protective anger bubbled up in her chest, how dare Emilia do this to him, use him like a common animal, he was intelligent and smart, and he could play instruments, and sing and _he was her child_. Song felt a hand grab her wrist from beside her, she moved to jerk her hand away, before realizing it was just Lio and stopping herself.  
  
He pointed at her arm, which was covered in fur. “I get you’re angry, I am too, but we’re getting out of here now, he will never be at her mercy again. Not if we have any say in it.”  
  
Song took a deep breath and concentrated on the feeling of Lio next to her and Kipo in her arms, it was something she had discovered while confined to their room, thinking of her family helped her remember her humanity and soothed the animal instincts, made her feel safe, she breathed out and the fur went away.  
  
She smiled at Lio “Let’s get our oldest child.” she whispered, carefully untying Kipos little cocoon from herself and giving her to Lio, who looked at her in concern,  
  
“Are you sure you want to do this? I can go and get him.”  
  
“I’ve got this, don’t worry, I got superstrength now.” She replied with a grin, flexing her arms at him.  
  
“You also just gave birth” Lio reminded her, but moved further back into the vent and settled Kipo more securely against himself, she was, blessedly, still deep asleep.

Song threw one last reassuring look back at him and carefully removed the cover of the vent. Her biggest problem now was getting down, as the vent in Hugo’s cell was, in contrast to their own room, near the ceiling and not on ground level. Song looked down, carefully checking for a spot where she could land without pushing anything over.  
  
The vent lead into the room right above the bookcase. Song carefully let herself drop down onto a non cluttered part of it and from there dropped all the way to the ground.

“Song?” came a soft voice from the cage in the corner.  
  
“Hugo!” Song exclaimed quietly and ran over to the cage, where the mandrill had sat up and was looking at her.  
  
“You really came to get me.” Hugo said with quiet disbelieve in his voice, putting his hand up against the glass.  
  
“Of course we did, we promised after all” Song responded softly, putting her hand against his from the other side of the cage separating them.  
  
“I just thought… I haven’t seen much of Lio lately and haven’t seen you at all, and I understand that you had to plan our grand escape, but I just…” he trailed off.

“Oh Hugo, I’m so sorry, we didn’t mean to leave you alone this much. That ends now though, we’re leaving and you’re coming with us and we’re going to be a proper family.” Song looked at Hugo with determination before glancing up at the corner where Lio was perched inside the vent, Kipo clutched to his chest, he looked as heartbroken as she felt at Hugo’s confession.  
  
Having spotted Lio for the first time Hugo gave a small wave, which Lio reciprocated.  
  
Song meanwhile got up and went over to the door of Hugo’s cage. She slipped out the keycard Lio hat snatched from one of the other researchers while they weren’t paying attention and opened the door.  
  
“Come on, we need to be as far away from here as possible by the time they notice our absence” Song urged and Huge made his way out of the cage he had been trapped in for the last 4 months of his life. The second he was within reach Song wrapped him in a hug.  
  
“It is so good to see you Hugo” she told him quietly, as she held him close, he clung to her for a second, relishing in her warmth and familiar smell. He felt safe for the first time since he got discovered.  
  
“Let’s go.” Together they made their way over to the bookcase, Song went to help Hugo get up, but with two quick jumps the mandrill was hanging onto the vent and Lio reached out a hand to help him up the rest of the way.  
  
At least it seemed that one good thing had come out of Dr. Emilia having him run on that treadmill all day, Song thought bitterly.  
  
Song climbed up at the bookcase and reached up her arms, and after a quick jump and both her boys grabbing her to help her up, she was back in the vent with them, sealing it behind her.  
  
When she turned back around, she saw Lio giving Hugo the same clutching hug he had received from her.

Apparently, while being carried through a vent and getting traded off to her father hadn’t been enough to wake her, being caught in the middle of a hug was what finally woke Kipo up.  
With an inquisitive cooing sound and small wriggle, she tried to see who her Dad was clinging to so desperately.  
  
Hugo, who had backed up a bit after feeling the movement, was gazing down into two big pink eyes, looking up at him curiously. “Your daughter! She is finally here! Wait, is that my blanket?” Hugo asked, having torn his eyes from the babies.  
  
“It is the softest blanket we have, and Kipo loves it just as much as you always did. I hope you don’t mind.” Song said quietly, watching the first interaction between her children curiously.  
  
“I…” for a moment it seemed as though Hugo, now looking at Song, wanted to object to having his blanket taken from him, but a soft noise from Kipo caught his attention. She was giggling and stretching her arm towards him. Carefully he offered her a finger. She grasped it with surprising strength, smiling up at him “…no, it’s fine, she can have it.” he said, after a second, his entire face having gone soft and gently smiling at the small baby.  
  
Song grinned, “Well then, let’s go.” With that they started making their way to the exit.

After climbing through the vents for an additional 30 minutes they finally made it to the top story of their burrow. Song carefully gazed up through the exit above her, where fresh air got filtered down into the burrow, she could only make out the leaves of the giant trees sheltering their hideout.  
  
“Okay, nearly there, we just need to get out here.”  
  
The grid that was meant to keep out unwanted visitors, was sitting at about twice her height, they had already gotten out through there once, to look at the stars, but back then she hadn’t just given birth not even 24 hours prior, she was exhausted.  
  
“Song, I can get the grid, you take Kipo and rest for a bit, you’ll need your strength.” Lio said, seeing her apprehensive look.  
  
Song thought about arguing for a second, but then smiled at her husband instead, “Yes, that would probably be best, thank you.”  
  
Lio smiled back and her and made to give Kipo to her, when Hugo piped up from where he had been silently watching the interaction “Can I hold her?” Lio and Song both looked at him, before making eye contact, Lio looked a bit apprehensive, but Song gave him an encouraging smile.  
  
Carefully Lio held out his little daughter to Hugo “You need to support her head, while she seems to be further developed than a normal human baby would be, we don’t want to risk accidentally hurting her.” Lio explained while putting Kipo into Hugos arms and readjusting his grip a little.  
  
Carefully he let go and watched as Hugo moved Kipo around a bit, clearly unfamiliar with the weight of a moving baby in his arms, until they were both comfortable. He gazed down at her. “Hello Kipo, I am your big brother Hugo.” he said quietly.  
  
Satisfied with what he was seeing Lio moved to get the grate unlatched and let them all out onto the surface.

Song sat down with her back against the wall and watched her two children. Kipo was cooing and had managed to remove one arm from her cocoon again, with which she was now curiously touching Hugos face. Hugo meanwhile had a look of quiet adoration on his face, while he let Kipo do as she pleased. They were both already clearly enamored with each other, much to Songs delight.

A sudden clanging sound made her whip her head around and look at Lio, who was precariously hanging by one hand on the now open grid.  
  
“Whoops…” he said sheepishly, before dropping back down.  
  
“Erm… Song? Lio? A little assistance please?” Came Hugos voice from behind them.  
  
When Song looked back at him, she immediately saw the problem. The arm Kipo had been using had transformed into a Jaguar paw and her little daughter seemed seconds away from crying.  
  
Songs first instinct was to take Kipo back from Hugo, but then she thought better of it. “You need to rock her a bit, try moving your arms up and down a little, and if that doesn’t help try singing or humming to her, that seemed to work for Lio.” She explained gently, slowly making her way over.  
  
Hugo gave her a kind of desperate look, but did as instructed, the rocking, unfortunately, didn’t do much to calm Kipo down, but when he hesitantly started humming to her, she immediately quieted down and looked up at him with wide eyes.  
  
“You're already a great big brother Hugo.” Lio commented from where he had wandered over and was now looking at Kipo and Hugo, wo looked with him with wide eyes at the comment.  
  
Song smiled at her family “Let’s leave this place, we still have quite a bit to go before we’re safe.” She said.  
  
They made their way over to the grate and after a quick discussion decided that Lio would go first, and after that Hugo with Kipo, because he was the most agile out of them and would have the easiest time climbing with Kipo occupying one of his arms, Song would go last. With that sorted they made their way up

Once they had finally gotten out Hugo gave Kipo back to Lio, even though he looked slightly reluctant to let go of his baby sister, who by now was sound asleep again.  
  
"Just a bit more climbing and we’re out.” Lio said, looking up at the trees “Are you good to go Song? Or do you need some rest?”  
  
“I’m fine, let’s keep going, we might not get far enough otherwise.” Lio nodded and they started their climb up the trees.

It wasn’t easy, exhaustion had set into what felt like Songs very bones, but she pushed through and after about 15 minutes they finally reached the top. Hugo, who had gone ahead, having no trouble climbing the tree at speeds at least twice as fast as Lio and her could manage on their best days, was staring up at the sky. Above them a sea of stars was peeking out behind scattered clouds and even though she had already seen it before, she couldn’t help but stare in awe once more.  
  
“We never have to leave this sky behind again if we don’t want to.” Lio stated from beside her, a small smile on his face, Kipo held close to his chest. Song nodded.

Hugo looked back at them with an inquisitive look on his face “So, where to now? I assume you two have a plan.”  
  
Lio and Song exchanged a look “Errrr…” “Well, you see…” they began at the same time.  
  
“Really? You got us all the way to the surface and don’t have a plan for what follows?” Hugo asked incredulously.  
  
“We do have a plan, just not a very detailed one,” Song said a little sheepishly “we need to find somewhere safe, preferably as far away from our old burrow and Emilia as we can get.”  
  
“That is incredibly vague” Hugo complained.  
  
“Well,” Lio said with a smile “as long as we got each other, I am sure we will manage.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do have more ideas for this AU if you guys would be interested?  
> Let me know!


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The family stops for some much needed rest  
> Hugo realizes he's not really okay, but that's fine, he has his family there to take care of him

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh jeez, I can't believe the amount of positive feedback I got for this, I actually teared up a litte  
> So here is a second chapter and there will be more!

Song was exhausted.

After they had arrived on the surface they had picked a random direction and started walking, only taking short breaks to reorient themselves and feed Kipo, who was surprisingly calm about the whole situation and seemed perfectly happy to get passed around from one person to another.

Currently she was back in Songs arms, as she had been getting fussy with Hugo holding her and they were trying to keep her from getting too loud and attracting unwanted attention.

Fortunately, they hadn’t run into any dangerous mutes yet. Only seeing the occasional giant insects skittering and birds flying around, but nonetheless they had decided caution was better than getting caught off guard. 

Lio kept throwing worried glances at Song and she was trying her best to appear like her whole body wasn’t screaming for her to rest, but eventually she just couldn’t keep going anymore.

“I need a break” she stated, “and a nap.”

Lio nodded and Hugo looked up at here from where he had been walking between them.

Ever since they had left the burrow, he had never gone more than an arm’s length away from them, as if he was worried they would simply disappear once they weren’t in easy grabbing distance anymore.

“Maybe one of the buildings around here will work as a shelter, though…” as Lio looked around his eyebrows drew together, “most of them look as if they are one bad mutequake away from collapsing…”

“I’m pretty sure on the surface they’re called earthquakes.” Song teased him, but silently had to agree. None of these buildings looked incredibly stable.

“What about that one over there?” Hugo piped up, pointing at a building that looked to be in relatively good shape.

It seemed to be some kind of old shop, the few big letters still remained above the entrance read -up--m---et.

“Good catch Hugo, this one looks to be in decent shape. Let’s see if there is any quiet corner for us to rest in” Song praised him and Hugo gave her a proud smile.

They made their way over to the building and inside. Lio went in first, carefully looking around to see if there were any unwanted surprises waiting for them. Song followed him, equally cautious, Kipo held in one arm, while Hugo grasped onto her free hand and crowded even closer to her.

She really hoped Hugos insistence on staying close was just a reaction to his new environment, and not something more from his time being locked up.

She had a feeling she was hoping in vain.

“Okay, we’re in the clear” came Lios voice from a bit further into the shop.

Snapped out of her contemplation on her son’s mental wellbeing Song took another second to really look at her surroundings.

There were shelves upon shelves, mostly standing in neat rows, a few having toppled over or just plain rotted through, leaving heaps of the items they used to hold lying on the floor. It looked like they had made their way into a grocery shop.

She wondered if there was anything left that was still edible, they could maybe stock up their supplies a bit.

With determined steps Song led her children further in, towards where she had heard Lios voice.

Her Husband was standing in a corner that was slightly more hidden from view than the rest of the room, looking at the paper cut out of a family, smiling and holding hands.

“I can’t believe this thing is still in such good condition, you would think stuff like this would rot and fall apart.” He commented, looking back at the rest of his family, “Well, anyway, I thought this wouldn’t be a terrible place to set up camp for a few hours, get some rest and sleep a little, before continuing on.”

Song looked around, the ground was relatively clean and there were some boxes they could use as improvised chairs or headrests and they had packed a thin blanket in one of their backpack that they could use to make the ground just a little more comfortable.

“This is probably as good as we can get right now.” Song said with a nod, “Let’s get comfortable.”

She carefully extracted her hand from Hugos, who looked up from inspecting their designated resting area at that. She held Kipo out to him, “Could you hold her for a bit please? Lio and I will try to make this place as comfortable as we can for now.” She smiled at Hugo gently, who nodded and took Kipo from her.

Kipo just yawned for a moment and settled herself more comfortably into her brother’s arms with a small wiggle, before dropping back off to sleep.

Hugo looked around for a moment, before settling on a box that seemed strong enough to not immediately collapse under his weight and sat down with Kipo in his arms.

Song smiled at him and then turned to Lio, who was already moving things around to clear out an area for them to sleep on. Setting down her backpack she started rummaging through it for the blanket, pulling it out, along some protein bars they packed as an easy meal.

After having cleared enough rubble and having put the blanket down on the floor. She looked back over at Hugo, who was watching the proceedings with a weirdly anxious look on his face, holding onto Kipo closely, like a safety blanket.

Song felt a lump form in her throat, as she added another mental note to talk to Hugo about what, at the very least, seemed to be the beginnings of abandonment issues.

Which would be completely understandable considering what he had gone through, but still would need to be addressed in some form to prevent it from escalating.

Song waved him over “Come on Hugo, you need some rest too” she said softly to the mandrill.

“I’ll stay up and make sure we don’t get jumped by something” Lio stated, from where he had settled with his back against a wall facing the entrance to their little hideout.

“Sounds good to me” Song yawned, Hugo had made his way over and was hovering next to her with Kipo in his arms, looking a bit unsure of himself.

Song lay down on the blanket and stretched out her arms for Hugo to deposited Kipo into. He reluctantly did so and watched as Song got Kipo comfortably settled so she wouldn’t lie on the hard ground. Then she looked back up at him.

“What are you waiting for, lie down with us, there is more than enough space” She said with a small smile and watched as Hugo settled next to her, curling into a ball, still looking anxious.

“Hugo,” she said softly, “you don’t have to keep that far away from me.”

Hugo looked unsure for another second before apparently coming to a decision and scooting close enough to Song so that he could curl into her, careful not to disturb Kipo.

Song gazed down at him softly, where his head was nearly touching her chin.

She looked up at Lio, who was watching them with a small smile on his face, but there were worried lines around his eyes, Song tried to give him a reassuring look, before closing her eyes and quickly drifting off to sleep.

~~~

Hugo woke up with a jolt. For a second he couldn’t remember where he was, looking around frantically, without really seeing his surroundings.

“Hugo.” a voice came from beside him and a hand settled carefully on his cheek. “It’s alright, you’re safe, we aren’t at the burrow anymore.”

Slowly his memories came back to him, between Songs voice softly reassuring him and the feeling of the blanket underneath him he remembered where he was again.

“Song, I…” his chest still felt tight, like he wasn’t getting enough air

“Hugo, you need to take some deep breaths.” Song urged quietly, and it was only now that he realized his breathing was coming fast and frantic. He tried to concentrate on his breathing and managed to calm down a little. He looked at Song again.

“I apologize, I don’t know what happened.” He said.

Song just smiled at him sadly. “I think you might have had a panic attack.” Her hand was still on his cheek and she was moving her thumb up and down in a gentle, soothing rhythm. He concentrated on her presence and the calming touch and felt the last bits of anxiety slowly leave him, though there was still a tight knot of unease in his stomach.

“A panic attack? Ridiculous! There is nothing to panic about.” He didn’t know if he wanted to convince Song of that or himself.

“That is the mean part about panic attacks, they don’t really care if there is a valid reason for you to panic, it just happens.” She hesitated, “Hugo, I know the last few months have been very hard for you and I wished we could have escaped sooner, but we’re out now and if you ever want to talk about what happened, or anything really, we’re here for you.” She looked him into the eyes, “I understand if you want some time to process everything for yourself first, but I think talking to me or Lio would help and we’ll be here when you need us. We’re not going anywhere without you.”

She leaned forward and bumped their forheads together, “I love you, and think of you as my son, I will always be there for you.” She insisted softly.

Hugo closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths, holding back tears. He didn’t know what to say, didn’t know yet how to respond to a confession like that. Of course he had known, or hoped, somewhere deep down that Song felt that way, he had always seen her as a mother and Lio as his father, but hearing it confirmed so directly made it somehow more tangible. More real.

After Songs visits had stopped completely once they couldn’t risk exposing their experimenting to Dr. Emilia and Lios visits had lessened as well, so as to not make her too suspicious of their plans. Hugo sometimes had days without any positive contact, and even when Lio would visit, he could never stay long. Just enough for a short story or conversation, just long enough to give Hugo back some hope.

A treacherous part of his brain had begun to whisper that they didn’t really love him, that he was only another experiment, they didn’t actually care about him. They would take their child, their real child, and leave him behind, they wouldn’t need him anymore once she was born.

But they had come for him. They had risked getting caught just to get him and now Song was soothing all his worst worries by affirming that they did love him.

He heard footsteps approaching and looked up. Lio had just rounded the corner, holding a few items of what looked like packed up food.

He blinked at them, “Did I miss something?” he asked.

Song laughed, it sounded a little watery, wait, was she crying? “Come here we’re having a family hugging session.” She said, looking at Lio.

Lio still looked slightly concerned but made his way over, depositing the items he was holding near their backpacks along the way. He knelt down next to them and put an arm each around Hugo and Song.

“I don’t know why we’re doing this, but it’s nice.” He stated.

Just in that moment Kipo decided to make her presence known as well, by making a gurgling noise and reaching one tiny hand up from where she was still held securely in one of Songs arms and patting Hugos face.

Hugo smiled down at his baby sister warmly.

“I think I’m fine now… Thank you.” He said.

Song just kept smiling at him, before slowly letting go and sitting back. Lio looked between them again, before standing back up.

“I found some stuff that seems to still be edible, we can stock up our rations with it, eat something other than protein bars for once.”

“Perfect, I’m starving, let’s eat something and then pack up and keep going. It’s nearly sunrise, soon the people in the burrow will wake up and notice we’re gone, we should try to get some more distance by then.” Song responded, making a grab for one of the bags Lio brought.

Lio nodded and held out another bag to Hugo, who took it and expected the packaging, which simply read ‘Chips’.

He decided any further inspection of his feelings and why he had panicked like that could wait until after they had eaten.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This got a bit more angsty than I intended, but our boy Hugo is not okay and no one expects him to, but also they don't really have time to deal with this right now, so Song does her best to comfort him as much as she can.  
> She loves her family so much.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Another important conversation is had

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really appreaciate all the feedback I got <3 and I'm glad people are enjoying this story
> 
> Just a quick note that I am posting the chapters as I'm writing them, so updates might not come regularly  
> I hope you can all be patient should I ever get stuck, I promise I will continue the story in time
> 
> Enjoy this chapter!

After everyone had eaten their share of snacks and Kipo had been fed, the family packed up their things and made their way outside again.

It was still dark, but they were able to make out the first signs of sunrise on the horizon. They knew that technically the sunrise didn’t mean their immediate doom, but the dread they felt at the thought of Dr. Emilia discovering their absence, even though they had managed to get quite some distance, still sat heavy in all their stomachs.

“Okay, no more breaks for a while. While I am not even sure if Emilia will end up sending out a search party, but we need to be prepared for the possibility that they might find us.” Song said worriedly. The thought of losing her children after having only spent such a short amount of time together as a family made panic rise inside her chest.

Lio took her hand, smiling at her reassuringly. “We made sure to not leave behind any indication of where we went and we’ve gotten far enough that even if they should, somehow, find out where we are, it would take them at least a day to reach us.” He lifted her arm slightly, “That being said, we also really need to figure out a way for you to control this.”

Song blinked at the fur on her arm, she hadn’t even realized it had appeared.

“Actually, I wanted to ask about that. You told me you were going to try some experiment with your child, but what happened to you, Song?” Hugo asked from beside them, lifting his hand a bit as if to touch Songs arm, before looking at her for permission. She nodded and Hugo experimentally touched the fur.

“Huh, that kind of feels like mine.” He observed.

“We will explain everything while walking, we’ve already spent enough time here.” Song decide, with Lio nodding in acceptance, “Sounds like a plan, let’s keep going.”

~~~

“So let me make sure I got this right, you experimented with your daughter by trying to make her part mega mute, you had four different cell clusters for this, the one that took for Kipo was the mega Jaguar and somehow the mega Monkey DNA merged with Songs, also making her part mega mute, even though that wasn’t your goal.” Hugo looked at them incredulously “And also you have no idea how to control this.”

“That about sums it up.” Lio admitted, they had gone into a very scientific explanation and while Hugo was smart, they’d had to rephrase a few things.

“I understand the basics of the transformation by now… I think.” Song added, “The Monkey usually shows itself when I’m in emotional turmoil or perceived danger and reminding myself that I am safe helps make the fur go away. However I have no idea how I would control it if we should ever get into a truly dangerous situation, where I can’t convince myself to calm down and I fear I might lose myself if the transformation goes too far.”

Hugo nodded, looking at the ground in contemplation. Something seemed to be bothering him.

“Hugo? Is everything all right? If something about this is bothering you, you can talk to us, we won’t be upset.” Song said gently.

Hugo hesitated for a moment “It’s just… experimenting on your own child seems wrong somehow. I get why you did it, and I get how it is going to help, but if anything went wrong your child or even you could have been severely hurt. What if she had transformed while you were still pregnant, what if she transforms while still being so little and is not able to turn back?” He was getting visibly upset now. “Just throwing someone into such completely new circumstances, when they can’t even agree to it on their own just isn’t right!”

Lio and Song looked at each other, Lios eyebrows were drawn together and understanding sparked in his eyes at Hugos last sentence.

“Hugo, I’m sorry, I never even considered how it must have felt to go from normal animal intelligence to being a mute, with all the emotions and understanding that entails. I understand why you’re upset, and we can never make up for that.” He said, reaching out a hand, stopping for a moment to check Hugos reaction, when the mandrill just gave a short nod Lio put his hand on his shoulder. “I hope you can forgive us.”

“I know it wasn’t really your fault, Dr. Emilia was the one who pushed for all those tests.” Hugo muttered.

“But we still never questioned how you would feel, it wasn’t really something we ever thought about, we are just as much at fault here as Emilia, we were the ones conducting the tests after all and it is understandable if you’re upset at us.” Lio explained calmly.

Song looked down at Kipo in her arms, “I was just so happy to have found a solution to the problem of how humans would be able to live on the surface, I never even considered that Kipo might not want this burden once she is old enough to understand.”

She looked up at Lio and Hugo, “However, we will have to deal with that once the time comes. No turning back now, but Hugo, Lio is right, we never even considered your feelings on the matter. I am very glad you are who you are now, but that is no excuse for what we did.”

Hugo shook his head, “I didn’t… I am very glad to be me now as well and I don’t resent you for it, I honestly don’t know where that outburst came from.”

Song gave a small smile and stepped closer to them. “I am glad to hear that, but if you discover any more unexpected issues with anything we’re doing or have done, please, don’t hesitate to talk to us about it. We want you to feel safe and loved with us Hugo.”

Hugo smiled back at her.

“You know what might cheer us all up a little?” Lio said suddenly, a grin spreading on his face, “How about we get out of our old burrow jumpsuits and change into something more surface appropriate, and in Hugos case get him some actual clothes.” He pointed to a shop that seemed to be in quite good shape, with mannequins standing in the windows.

“A clothes shop!” Song exclaimed excitedly. “Let’s go in and see if they have anything that’s still in good condition.”

They made their way inside and started to go through various boxes and racks scattered throughout the shop. While Song wanted to try on absolutely everything she found, she also knew they were under some time restrictions, so she went looking for something that would be actually practical to wear.

In the end she settled on a white shirt, with pinkish red sleeves and some grey pants. She looked up at her boys and saw Lio in a pair of black jeans and a whit shirt that had a blue circle with stars on it in the middle and the word NASA printed on it.

“NASA… why does that seem familiar?” she asked.

“It used to be this organization dedicated to exploring space 200 years ago. I didn’t know they had t-shirts though.” Lio said, looking vaguely smug about his discovery.

Song just let out a small laugh.

Hugo had managed to have found a red button up shirt that fit him and some dark blue pants that somehow fit perfectly with the colors of his face markings.

“Oh, don’t you look quite dashing.” Song cooed, looking at him. Hugo looked down, embarrassed.

“It’s not quite as fancy as a kings’ clothes, but I do quite like it.” He said, looking back up with a smile.

While Hugos little obsession with royals and their court was adorable, Song made a mental note to teach him about what made a good ruler. She seemed to make a lot of these mental notes lately.

“I also found some baby clothes that might fit Kipo, I’m just going to put them into the backpack for now.” Lio said. “I’m going to put our old suits in there as well, we can’t just leave them here, in case Emilia comes this way.”

Song nodded in agreement.

~~~

They had started walking again after they were all dressed in fresh clothes and had by now gotten out of the remains of what seemed to have once been a bustling city and had reached the woods surrounding it. Though, these certainly weren’t like the woods they had all seen in old books and photographs.

The plants were gigantic and colorful, and while there were normal sized trees, they were dwarfed by their gigantic siblings, whose crowns looked to be as high up as some of the highest skyscrapers, their leaves dipping the world below into shadows. The rays of the early morning sun that was starting to rise on the horizon painted speckles of light into the darkness, giving the whole place an eerie look.

They all exchanged a look of slight look of discomfort at the prospect of going into such a dark and slightly sinister looking place.

Except Kipo, who seemed to take the rising sun as her signal to also be awake now and was curiously looking around, cooing at anything that caught her attention from her place in Lios arms.

With one last look back the way they just came from they started walking forward, into the woods.

~~~

They had been walking for a while, and between their eyes adjusting and the sun rising further on the horizon their surroundings were looking much less sinister.

It was only now that Song started to notice the weird plants, in between the trees, that looked like they had eyeballs growing on them.

She stepped closer to one.

On closer inspection the ‘eyeballs’ seemed to be rolled up leaves, or flowers, with a single slit through the middle, acting as the pupil.

“Huh, how interesting, I wonder why it looks like that.” She wondered to herself.

“Song? What are you looking at?” Lio asked, having noticed that she had stopped and taking a few steps in her direction.

“It’s just these weird plants, they look like eyeballs, have you noticed?”

“I’ve seen them.”

“Aren’t they fascinating?” She reached out a finger to poke one of the eyeballs.

“Don’t! They might be...” Lio started, just as Songs finger connected with the plant, “…poisonous.”

Fortunately, the plant did not seem to be poisonous, as all it did was roll itself up until it was only a round bud and no longer an eyeball.

Song looked sheepishly at Lio, “Sorry, I was curious.”

He just shook his head fondly, “Well, no harm done.” He reached out a hand for her to take and she grasped it smiling, before they rejoined Hugo, who was waiting with Kipo in his arms.

They kept going a while longer, until they reached what looked to be a collapsed building. The walls where almost completely gone, however what seemed to once have been a sign above the entrance was still in relatively good shape. Song couldn’t make out the writing on it, but above the letters there was a pyramid with an eye at the top. It looked quite eerie.

“I wonder what this used to be.” Lio said while stepping closer.

Suddenly the ground started to rumble. “What…” was all he got out before a gigantic six legged pig seemingly came out of nowhere and ate him.

“LIO!!!” Song screamed, the fur on her arm growing in and then her arm growing even bigger. She hardly noticed, with a roar she made to leap at the monster, just to hear Hugo yell out “SONG WATCH OUT!” from where he stood directly behind her, as a second pig came crashing through the trees and scooped them up as well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Is it considered a cliffhanger if everyone knows what's coming next?
> 
> I didn't actually mean for this conversation to happen like that, but Hugo decided it was time for more angst  
> Also I found it really weird when Hugo was running around the surface without any clothes while all the other mutes were dressed, so I fixed that, for my own peace of mind and yes, I did basically give him a more modern version of his Scarlemagne outfit  
> Song is basically wearing the outfit from Kipos Mulholland dream, because I thought it suited her and Lio is a space nerd


	4. Intermission

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's a beautiful morning in the burrow

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you as always for all the comments and kudos <3

Dr. Emilia did not think of herself as a cruel woman. She did what was necessary for the greater good and that required some sacrifices.

Humanity had once ruled the surface and it had thrived, until the catastrophe had ripped that away from them, but she was going to make sure that the world returned to how it should be.

She knew Lio and Song Oak were hiding something from her and she had contemplated when the best time would be to confront them about it. They had become way too attached to their little experiment anyway, it was time for an intervention.

She had decided the day before to give them one more night to themselves, before she would grab some of her most trusted scientists and find out what they thought it was they could hide from her.

With that goal in mind she had gotten up in the morning, preparing herself for the confrontation. She had informed Greta, Zane and Isobella the evening prior, that they were to get up bright and early and be ready for anything.

She wasn’t stupid after all, she had long since begun to suspect that Song and Lio knew the formula on how to reverse the mutation, but were to soft to do what had to be done.

Too attached.

So now she found herself in front of their apartment in the early hours of the morning, knocking and not receiving an answer.

They had been here for nearly 5 minutes now, trying to get the Oaks to open the door and hadn’t even heard so much as a peep from the other side.

Something was up.

“Isobella, open the door.” She commanded the other scientist, who was their current security chief and had been brought along for the sole purpose of forcefully overwriting the lock if necessary.

“Maybe they aren’t decent and are getting dressed. I wouldn’t want to be caught with my pants down when hiding something.” Commented Greta thoughtfully.

“You do realize that ‘getting caught with your pants down’ isn’t meant literally most of the time, right?” Zane asked resigned. They all knew she didn’t.

“It isn’t?” Greta looked confused.

Emilia heaved a sigh.

“Isobella, the door?” she looked at where Isobella was finishing up overwriting the door.

“It should open any second Dr. Emilia.”

Just as she finished her sentence the door slid open and revealed…

Nothing, the apartment of the Oaks was dark and empty, most personal belongings seemed to have been removed, and only larger, less practical things seemed to have been left behind.

Emilias face contorted in anger.

“Zane, Greta, check on the Mandrill.” She hissed.

“Are you sure? They might just be in the bathroom.” Greta said cautiously.

“NOW!” Emilia shouted at her and they scurried away into the direction of the lab.

She already knew they would find it empty.

“Isobella, help me figure out how they got out and where they went. Then put together a search party.” She commanded, more calmly.

Isobella nodded and entered the apartment, looking around for clues.

They wouldn’t just get away with this, she wouldn’t allow them to take this away from her, from all of humanity. She would find them and then they would help her fix the world, whether they wanted to or if she would have to force them.

“Dr. Emilia? It seems they have used the vents as their escape route.” Isobella said, lifting the loose vent covering away from the shaft.

Just in that moment Zane came hurrying back.

“Uh… monkey’s gone.” He said, out of breath.

Emilia inhaled deeply.

“I figured.”

Another deep breath.

“Well, we now know how they got out. Get as many people together as you think is reasonable and find them, but keep in mind you can’t catch the attention of anything while you’re up there.” She addressed Isobella, who nodded before leaving the room.

She would not let them get away with this without consequences.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Writing Emilia and her pack of scientists was suprisingly fun  
> ft. that one scientist that was standing to the side while Emilia confronted Song and then was never seen again.
> 
> Also anyone else let out an audible laugh when Emilia said that the surface had thrived when humans were at the top? No? Just me? Okay.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Goats and cheese and learning to control the genetic mutation you accidentially subjected yourself to

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really hope I did the Chevre Sisters justice, I love them, but they're hard to write.

The pigs mouth was warm wet and sticky, and Song had done her level best to try and pry it open from the inside, but the monsters jaw stayed firmly shut and she instead had, with some effort, turned around and curled protectively around Hugo and Kipo, who were in there with her.

And yet they didn’t get eaten like she feared. The beast just kept them in its giant mouth and from the feeling of movement, kept running.

Where was it bringing them? Was the other one still there alongside them? Had it swallowed Lio or was he stuck, just like them? She had a million of these questions.

She was terrified.

It didn’t help that she could now feel that her entire arm had grown in size, she was aware that this could happen, had seen it happen to Kipo, but she had wanted to try it out in a controlled environment, where she could be sure to control it and not lose herself or hurt her family.

God, Hugo and Kipo had to be even more terrified, she just hoped her daughter wouldn’t start crying and accidentally choke on the thick saliva inside the pigs mouth.

The fear of choking was the only thing that had kept her from trying to talk to her children, and Hugo seemed to instinctively know not to open his mouth.

~~~

It felt like hours had passed by the time the pigs came to a sudden halt. Song braced herself for whatever was going to happen next, when they were unceremoniously spit out.

Her first instinct was to check on her children, Hugo was still clutching Kipo close, he had curled himself around her and was looking around with wild eyes. He made eye contact with Song and relaxed a little, but still held his sister close. Kipo looked disgruntled and one of her arms was now a tiny pink paw, which she had placed over one of the hands holding her, the gesture looked almost protective, if it hadn’t come from a tiny baby.

Song heard a cough and movement and looked to her right, to see Lio, covered in saliva, but otherwise seemingly okay.

“Lio!” she exclaimed in relief. Her husband looked up at her, just as relieved.

“Oh my, that’s quite the group that Bornak and Webber have brought us.” Came a calm voice.

“Just as the cheese prophesized.” a second voice added.

“A baby!” a third one squealed.

Immediately Song was on her feet and between whoever had spoken and her family, pigs for now forgotten, and growled.

It was not a sound she should have been able to produce, but that could wait, she had to make sure her family was safe.

“Now now, no need for violence. We won’t harm you.” The source of the first voice spoke.

It was a goat.

Actually, it was three goats. Mute goats to be more precise. They were sitting on what appeared to be beach chairs, one of them was holding a bowl of… cheese?

They were looking at their little group, or not quit, now that Song looked closer. They were looking in the direction of their group, but something was off.

The one who had spoken last was the closest one to them, she was wearing open light blue shirt with a darker undershirt and had a pair of earrings in her floppy ears and appeared to be the tallest of the three.

To her right was the smallest of the goats, who was wearing shorter dark blue cardigan over a pink undershirt and appeared to have dropped a glass of water on the ground, now holding her face between her… those were hooves she had for hands, and grinning at them. 

The last one was wearing a long blue shirt and also smiling at them, she was still holding her glass of water.

“Who are you? Why did you have those pigs bring us here? What do you want?” Song demanded, protective rage and adrenalin keeping her on edge, even though the mutes in front of her did not seem threatening.

“We are the Chevre Sisters, my name is Ida. Bornak and Webber have brought you to us because the cheese told us of you coming through and that you were in need of some guidance. Does that answer your questions? We really mean no harm to you or your family, please believe me, unfortunately collecting visitors by pig mouth is the only way we can ensure our location stays secret, I apologize.” The tallest one, Ida, explained.

“I suppose that answers my questions.” Song said reluctantly, it had also given her about a million more questions, but she could ask those later.

“Did she just say the cheese told her we were coming?” she heard Hugo mutter quietly behind her.

Him and Lio had gotten up and were standing close together, Hugos free hand clutching Lios arm and his other one holding Kipo close.

Lio and Hugo had similar looks of caution and confusion on their faces, with traces of fear. Kipo was just looking curious, cooing and gently patting Hugos face.

Behind them were the pigs. They were gigantic, with four eyes six legs and tusks twice as long as Lio was tall and as thick as he was wide. They were just looking at the happenings, seemingly bored. One of them was a deep blue in color, whereas the other was a dark red.

“Again, I apologize for all the confusion, please, sit down, we will get you something to drink and explain what is going.” Ida said.

“OH! We still have some of that berry juice! I’m sure they would like that!” the smallest one exclaimed.

“Bev please, try to be a bit calmer, you will make them nervous.” The middle one said, exasperated.

Song had at this point given up trying to understand and just let the goats show them a place to sit and then watched as they made their way through a cave entrance. Presumably to get them something to drink.

“Is everyone okay?” Song asked her family. They were all sitting close together, Hugo and Kipo in between Lio and Song.

“A bit shaken up, and we really need to wash these clothes now, but otherwise I’m fine.” Lio answered and she looked at Hugo.

He was quiet for a moment. “I was quite scared, but I think I will be fine, now that we are not in danger anymore.”

“We will see about that.” Song muttered, with a quick glance at the cave.

She looked at her family again, “I was so terrified I was going to lose all of you, after that pig first got you Lio, I was so angry and scared, I could barely think straight.” She turned so she could envelope all of them in a hug.

“We’re fine now Song. Are you sure you are alright? Your arm…”

It was only now that Song remembered the sensation of her arm changing shape, she had completely disregarded it in the confusion following their release from the pigs’ mouth.

Instead of her normal arm there was a huge monkey’s hand, it honestly didn’t look too different in shape to her normal arm, just that both her arm and hand were now about twice as big and a little longer.

Had her other arm also transformed she would have been able to effortlessly walk on all fours now.

“Huh…” She lifted the arm up and closer to her face, inspecting it. She flexed her fingers. The feeling of fur moving on her hand was weird, but not unpleasant, and she could move the arm completely normal, she just had to consider its new reach.

She tried to take a few deep breaths, concentrating on her family, willing her arm to return to normal.

It didn’t work.

“I can’t turn back.” She whispered in horror.

Lio looked at her in shock and Hugos eyes got huge with concern.

“That is why you’re here, we can help.” Came Idas voice, Song flinched, not having heard the goats come back.

“What…” She got out.

“But first, juice!” The smallest one, Bev, Song thought she was called, exclaimed, slightly lifting a jug of purplish red liquid.

The third goat whose name Song hadn’t caught yet was carrying some glasses, so was Ida upon closer inspection.

Said glasses were sat down in front of them and then filled with juice.

Song resigned herself to drinking some juice if she wanted answers. She was thirsty anyway.

~~~

The goats had all officially introduced themselves by the time the jug was empty and all of them had calmed down a little.

Song looked at them “So, what did you mean by saying you can help? How could you possibly know anything about this?” She waved her arm around for emphasis, before realizing the uselessness of the gesture, as they had learned all three of the Chevre Sisters were blind.

She set her arm back down.

“Now don’t you worry about that too much. You already have the basics figured out yes? About how feeling safe makes your mute side calm down?” Florabel asked.

“How did you…”

“The cheese told us of course!” Bev interjected excited. “The cheese tells us lots of things!”

Song and Lio exchanged a worried look. It seemed insane, cheese couldn’t talk after all. And yet these three goats they had never met before, knew something that Song herself had only figured out incredibly recently.

“Okay… and the cheese also told you how to help me control this completely?” she asked cautiously.

“Of course, but before we can teach you that, we would like you to help us make a new batch of cheese.” Ida informed her, before her and her sisters all got up.

“Now come along, oh, and only Songs help is required here, so you other dears can just relax out here until we’re done.” With that the sisters started walking towards the cave.

Song exchanged another look with Lio.

“This doesn’t seem safe.” Her husband said with a worried look on his face.

“It’s the only lead we have though.” Song reasoned.

“Just… be careful.”

Song gave him a reassuring smile, then hugged Hugo and Kipo, gave each a kiss on the forehead, kissed her husband and made to follow the goats.

What could possibly go wrong?

~~~  
Apparently, the answer was a lot. A lot could go wrong.

In the last 10 minutes she had to fish spices out of boiling milk, dodge sudden bursts of fire and avoid getting impaled by flying knifes, all while trying not to get into the way of the Chevre Sisters.

Also she had to keep putting herbs in and out, saying that out loud for the sisters benefit. The gesture had already become automatic, while she paid closer attention to what the goats were doing around her.

She had to admit though, she was silently freaking out.

Her second arm now hat also transformed, and while she couldn’t see it, her hearing and eyesight were suddenly suspiciously good. Also she had sprouted a tail. That was a thing that had happened. She didn’t know how to feel about that.

She wondered what she looked like right now.

The last straw for her was when Ida accidentally gave her a good shove while passing behind her and she nearly faceplanted into the curdling milk.

She jumped back with a yelp that sounded suspiciously like one of the distressed sounds Hugo used to make when he was younger.

“ENOUGH!” she yelled.

Everything stopped.

The three goats turned towards her.

“Is something wrong?” Florabel asked. Something about her tone seemed off, but Song was too upset to pay it much mind.

“Yes! I’m sorry, but I don’t think I can help you anymore, since I came in here my transformation only got worse!” Song exclaimed.

“Good, that was the goal.” Ida said with a smile.

“What? What do you mean.?” Song was somewhere between confused and angry now, where they trying to turn her into a mega mute?

“We will explain in a minute. Let’s rejoin your family outside.” Ida said patiently, grabbing one of Songs, now very big and furry, arms and leading her outside.

Lio looked up from where him and Hugo had been playing with Kipo when he heard them approaching and his face twisted in shock.

“Song! What happened!?” he ran towards her, his hand hovering over her cheek for a second, before carefully touching her face. His fingers graced her ear, which felt noticeably bigger and hairier than before.

He looked her into the eyes. His brows knitting together.

“So…” Song started casually, “How do I look?” she tried to sound lighthearted, but the question sat heavy in here gut.

“Your eyes are red.” Lio stated and then quieter, more to himself, “Huh, I wonder why, Kipos eyes stayed the same color that one time they changed.”

“Wait, when did Kipos eyes change?” Song asked, she had no memory of Lio telling her about that.

“What? Oh! It happened while she was watching one of the mutes flying overhead. It was only for a second, and I got distracted afterwards, so I forgot to tell you.” Lio answered sheepishly.

There was something tugging on her tail.

She looked down to see that Hugo had come closer and was looking at her curiously, Kipo in his arm, and her daughter had somehow managed to grab hold of the tail she had sprouted. She was giggling.

“Well, at least one person is happy at this turn of events.” Song sighed.

“You should be too, because now we can tell you how to change back!” Bevs voice chimed from behind them.

“What?” Song seemed to ask that question a lot today.

“Well, you see,” said Ida, “first we had to show you that your inner mute is only trying to protect you, which we did by putting you in potentially harmful situations,”

“I threw knifes at you!”

“so that you could unlock your potential. Now, the herbs weren’t just for the cheese. Try thinking about your family and safety while making the movement for herbs out, you should be able to change back.”

Song was skeptical, but at this point she had nothing to lose, so she did as instructed.

She though about Lio and how much she loved him, about her children and the warmth of being a family. She took a deep breath in.

“Herbs out.”

Her arms shrank back down. She stared at them in amazement.

“It worked!”

“Now, think about needing your strength, think about needing the monkey and make the gesture for herbs in.”

Song did.

Her monkey arms were back, and with some concentration she felt her vision and hearing change as well.

“That is amazing! I can now use this whenever I need, without fear of getting stuck! Thank you so much!” Song exclaimed and, in her excitement, enveloped the three goats in a hug.

Ida seemed a bit taken aback, but Florabel and Bev just grinned.

“You’re welcome!”

Song let go of them again.

“So, can you go full mute now?” Hugo asked, “Or is that still too risky?”

“Errrr…” She hadn’t really thought about that.

“We should ask the cheese!” Bev said, already turning towards the cave.

“Sure, let’s do that.” At this point Song wasn’t going to question the cheese anymore and turned to follow the goats.

She reached out her hands for Lio and Hugo to take. Hugo grabbed on without hesitation.

Lio gave her a look like he wasn’t quite sure she hadn’t gone insane, but still took her hand and followed her inside.

The goats had positioned themselves around their giant pot of cheese, waiting for them.

“Everyone here? Good, let’s begin.” Ida said, before dunking her hooves into the cheese and beginning to chant.

That was when things got weird.

Not that they hadn’t been weird already, but somehow it got even weirder.

“Cheddar, Gouda, Chevre, Fromage.” The sisters were chanting over and over, as they tilted their heads back and their eyes began to glow.

Hugo moved to stand behind Song, rather than beside her, peeking out from behind her back and Lio moved closer to her side, so they were standing shoulder to shoulder.

She couldn’t fault either of them for that, the whole thing looked eerie.

Like from one of these old horror stories.

After some time, the goats were apparently done. They stood up normally again and their eyes stopped glowing.

“Mhhh…” said Ida, sticking her cheese covered hoof into her mouth, “that’s not good.”

“Really, quite the predicament.” Florabel added.

“Someone bad is looking for you!” Bev finally addressed them.

Song felt a cold shower run down her back.

Emilia.

It couldn’t be anyone else.

Lio squeezed her hand, and she could feel Hugo cling even tighter to her.

“What about the transformation into a mega mute?” Lio asked.

“It is possible for her now, but she might still lose herself, if she doesn’t have anything anchoring her to her humanity.” Ida told them.

Oh, well that was easy.

“I got my family, would that work?”

“Probably, but you still have to be careful, if none of them are near while you transform your instincts could take over.”

“Okay, I understand.” She conceded.

“Also, about little Kipo,” Florabel started, taking a step closer, “you will have to foster her human side, otherwise she will turn into her mute form too young and not be able to turn back. However, going to a burrow is out of the question for you now, since you, Song, will have to practice your transformation, and I do not think most burrow humans would accept a mut into their communities, no matter how dear to one of their own.”

“I understand, we were already aware that we probably wouldn’t be able to go to another burrow. Do you have any other suggestions as to where we can go?” Song asked.

She had held out hope for a new burrow, but she wasn’t too disappointed to not have to go back underground. And as long as she had her family, they would be fine. She could feel Hugo shift behind her and, looking down, saw him pull a troubled face, not looking at her. She frowned.

“Well, for now you can stay with us. We will try to see if the cheese has any suggestions for where you can go, but it’s usually bad with directions.” Song looked back up at Idas words. “Our home is well hidden, and your pursuers should not be able to find you here. In about a week it should be safe enough for you to continue your search for a new home.”

Song was floored at the offer.

“Thank you, that is very kind of you.” Lio said from beside her. “But we wouldn’t want to cause any trouble for you.”

“Nonsense!” Florabel exclaimed, “No one will find you here and we are more than happy to have some company.”

“We can even explain some things about the surface!” Bev said excitedly.

“We will gladly accept your offer then.” Song said warmly.

She had expected a lot from the surface, danger and chaos mostly, she had expected to be hunted, by Emilia and mutes alike. She had not expected the kindness these mutes were offering them.

More than ever she vowed to never let Emilia have the formula to reverse the mutation. She would not betray them like this.

“We’ll make sure to set you up then.” Ida replied with a smile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Can you imagine how terrifying basically getting eaten must be?  
> Especially since this is the Oaks first close up encounter with mutes.  
> Kipos reaction in the show always seemed way to calm to me.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some respite from running, but not from feelings.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gently pats Hugo on the head: this soft boy can fit so much trauma in him.

There hadn’t been much space inside the cave for them, as that was the goats place of residency, but with some effort and ingenuity they managed to set up a kind of tent area outside. Complete with an improvised crib for Kipo.

It was already evening again by the time they were done setting up, and Song placed her baby in the crib to get her to sleep. She had been curiously watching everything that had been going on up to this point.

Song loved holding her daughter, but she knew sleeping with a baby directly in the bed wasn’t the best idea, since she could accidentally end up suffocating her, so she was grateful for a place to put Kipo down to rest.

Kipo on the other hand didn’t seem to be thrilled about it, no wonder, she basically had been carried around since she was born.

Now that Song thought about it, Kipo really hadn’t been put down once the entire time they were running.

Her daughter made her displeasure of being put into a crib known by starting to cry. Loudly.

“Oh my,” came Idas bemused voice, “someone doesn’t seem to like their crib.”

Song hesitated for a moment, unsure if she should lift Kipo back up, as that would probably make Kipo think she could always get her way by crying.

Could she already reason like that?

She shouldn’t, but Kipo wasn’t developing like a normal human child, Song really couldn’t be sure. From what she had researched, Kipos development was more comparable to a 4-month-old baby than a newborn.

She could think more about that later, her daughter was in distress.

She reached a hand down into the crib, putting it gently on her daughters’ face and started singing.

“We may not have sunshine,  
or starlight or weather,  
but we have eachother,  
and that’s even better.”

She continued singing until Kipos crying stopped, her eyelids drooped and eventually, she fell asleep.

Song let the last notes of the melody fade out and carefully lifted her hand away from her daughter.

Kipo remained asleep.

She stood back up straight and noticed for the first time that she had an audience.

The goats all looked like only the chance of Kipo waking up kept them from cooing at her, while Lio was looking at her with so much love in his eyes, she had to go over and kiss him.

It was in that moment that she finally realized, for the first time since they had left their burrow, they were completely safe.

~~~

It had been a couple of days since they arrived at the goats hideout and they had fallen into a new routine.

It wasn’t a very exciting routine, asking the Chevre Sisters questions about the surface and helping them make cheese and then actually getting to sleep properly and not worry every second about getting found out.

That was actually a very nice change of pace, but Song was bored.

Over the last few years she had always had her day packed full with experimenting, and teaching Hugo, and later with her pregnancy.

Granted, the last few months of her pregnancy she had spent cooped up in their apartment without much to do, but the constant worry about literally everything going on and planning their escape had kept her busy.

She was also worried about Hugo.

Where before he had been clinging to them, he was now avoiding them. Which was a startling turn of events to say the least.

She had wanted to give him space and let him come to either her or Lio to talk, but he didn’t seem to want to do that out of his own accord.

She was going to have to talk to him.

With her mind made up she handed Kipo off to Lio, told him what she was going to do, received a kiss good luck and made to find where her second child had run off to.

~~~

She found him sitting at the edge of the clearing, on a fallen over tree stump, his legs pulled all the way up to his chest and his arms crossed over them.

She made sure to make some noise while approaching, so as to not startle him too badly and then sat down next to him.

“So, want to talk about it?” She figured being direct was probably the best option. She had tried to coax him into opening up a few times over the last few days and it hadn’t worked.

“I don’t know what you could possibly mean.” Hugo answered, not looking her in the eye and still stubbornly staring into the forest.

Ah, so that was how this was going to be. Well, Song would need to get some experience with stubborn children anyway, she had a feeling Kipo would not be a very calm and reasonable child, and Hugo was approaching what for a human would be his teenage years.

She needed to be careful about this though, she didn’t want to make Hugo feel like she was pressuring him.

“Hugo, obviously I won’t force you to talk to me, but I’m worried, you have been a lot more distant the last few days, and I will understand if you just needed your space, but if there is more, please talk to me or Lio about it. I have told you before, we will always be here for you. We aren’t going anywhere.”

Hugo pulled his legs even closer to his chest, making himself smaller. He looked to be contemplating whether or not to tell her the truth.

Song made herself comfortable and decided to wait and see.

“That’s exactly the problem though, isn’t it.” He said quietly after a few minutes, “Because of me you won’t be able to go back to a burrow, where it would be safe and Kipo could grow up without the risk of losing herself, but they would never accept a mute into their community.”

And then, before she could find an answer to any of that he muttered under his breath, like he didn’t really want her to hear, “It’s only a matter of time until you decide I’m not worth the risk.”

He was intensely staring at the ground in front of him now.

Song took a deep breath, to calm the sudden spike of dread and rage that had come from the simultaneous thoughts of ‘Why would he think that’ and ‘How dare he think we care so little about him’.

She took another few breaths.

She carefully reached out her hand and put it on Hugos shoulder, then she waited until he was looking at her.

He looked terrified, like he was expecting her to tell him he was right, but his jaw was set in a stubborn line, like he was determined to not let it hurt him.

Song wanted to ask him if he thought so little of her, wanted to be hurt, but she knew making this about her own feelings wasn’t the way to go about it.

“Never Hugo. We would never leave you like that. We made the conscious decision to take you with us, because we love you and want you safe, even though we knew it would make everything just a little more complicated.” She made herself sound as steady and sure as she could.

Hugo still seemed doubtful, “But it puts Kipo at risk, and she is your child! Your actual child, not just some experiment you feel responsible for.”

“Just because Kipo is blood related to me and Lio, that doesn’t make her more important than you Hugo. You are both my children, I care about you both equally. There might come times where it looks like I’m paying more attention to one of you over the other, but it will never be because I love either of you more. You two are my top priority now and I want nothing more than to see you grow up, together, as siblings.”

Hugo broke eye contact with her at that, in an attempt to stop himself from crying, but a few tears still rolled down his cheeks.

“Oh Hugo… can I hug you, would that be alright?” She desperately wanted to hold him right now.

“I… yes, I would like that please.” He answered her quietly and she immediately enveloped him into a hug, pressing her face against the crown of his head.

“If you’re sure you want to keep me around I would very much like to be Kipos older brother, but I don’t really know how.” He mumbled quietly into her shoulder.

Song chuckled quietly, trying not to start crying from a sudden onslaught of emotions “Don’t worry, you’re already doing a great job, and you will learn with time.”

“I’m going to keep her safe, no matter what. If she can’t stay in a burrow because of me I can at least do that.” He said, determination clear in his voice.

“That is a very good goal, but Hugo, I need you to understand that this isn’t something we blame you for in any way, we knew what we were getting into when we decided to flee our old burrow. Also please keep yourself safe as well.” Song answered him.

She felt him nod against her shoulder.

They stayed in their embrace a little longer and by the time they got up and joined the rest of their little family again, night had fallen.

Song resolved to tell Lio about her conversation with Hugo in the morning, to prepare him for any possible future cases of doubt and guilt on their sons part, before putting Kipo into her crib and going to bed herself, exhausted from the emotional conversation she just had.

Hugo, meanwhile, resolved to trust Songs words and try to cast any last bits of doubt out of his mind. He was loved by them, he had a home with them, and he had a little sister to protect, and he would never let her down. He would be the best big brother she could wish for.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A bit of a shorter chapter this time.
> 
> Scarlemagnes issues stem mostly from the fact that he doesn't feel like anyones first priority, which I needed to adress with Hugo, cue, more angst.  
> I really just wanted to write fluff when I first started this story, but it seems until they're settled and the evil (aka Emilia) is vanquished I can't have that.
> 
> Also I did some math on Hugos age.  
> Male Mandrills reach full adulthood at about 9 years of age and reach age of maturity somewhere between 4-7 years old.  
> Now, if I calculated correctly (taking the number of formula they gave him as a reference), Hugo is a bit over 4 years old when he becomes a mute, making him maybe 13 in human years.  
> I think at that point he would probably start to age similarly to a human.  
> They escape aproximately a year later, so he is about 5 in actual years and about 14 mentally.  
> He's a teenager you guys.


	7. Intermission 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Let's see what Emilia has been up to, shall we?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Enjoy this very short chapter  
> We should be back to regular length for the next one

It had been five days.

Five days, since Lio and Song had vanished from the burrow.

Five days of searching for them on the surface and coming up empty.

Emilia was furious at this point, they had taken the mandrill, the only way she had of finding out the formula for the mutagen, and just up and disappeared.

A few of the other members of her burrow, that were in the known, had suggested they might have been eaten by one of the mutes, but Emilia knew better.

No, they were way to smart and prepared to get caught off guard like that.

There was also the matter of their child. She was certain they had done something to them, something that would explain Song isolating herself in her home and Lio making up some weird new sickness.

Burrow pox, please, for how much of a fool did they take her?

The search party was scheduled to arrive back any time now, and she hoped they had finally found something.

For their sakes.

Just in that moment there was a knock on the door to her office, she stood up straight from where she had stooped over a makeshift map that depicted their immediate surroundings and all the places the search had already taken them.

“Come in.”

The door swished open and Zane looked in nervously, Greta standing behind him like she was trying to hide. Seeing as she was nearly twice his height that wasn’t working.

“Well?” Emilia prompted.

Zane pulled himself together, “Still no sign of them.” he said.

Emilia was about to reprimand them for coming to her without any news, when Zane continued hastily.

“However, we found signs of another burrow.”

Emilia paused.

“Where?”

“About two days travel from here, under an old highway intersection, looks a bit like a clover. We haven’t tried to make contact yet, we wanted your input on how to proceed first.”

“You think they could be hiding there?” Greta asked.

“They might be, though it seems unlikely. If these humans have any sense, they won’t allow a mute into their community, and Song and Lio are way too attached to leave their little experiment behind. But even so, we need more people on our side, if they’re there that will just be an added bonus.” Emilia concluded.

“Prepare to go out again, we leave tomorrow at sunrise to make contact with the other burrow.” She commanded.

Zane and Greta nodded and left the room.

She might not get her experiment and scientists back any time soon, but at least she would have a wider network to find them and more people for when they ultimately took back the surface.

Emilia smiled and got to planning.

She had a burrow to convince of her vision and she would not fail at that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Emilias search party has found the clover burrow, good thing our heroes didn't go there!  
> I say like that wasn't the plan all along.
> 
> I always felt like the burrows should have some way for other humans to identify if there is one nearby, like, something only other burrow humans would notice.  
> I don't know what that would be, but they do now.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Road trip to a new home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In which the Chevre Sisters reflect my confusion while trying to figure out where locations are in relation to eachother.  
> It makes no sense how fast they get from one place to the other in the series, so I just gave up and left descriptions vague, enjoy.

“WE FIGURED OUT WHERE YOU CAN LIVE!”

Song jolted awake, had her bed not already been on the ground she was pretty sure that’s where she would have ended up.

Confused she looked up at Bev, who was standing in the entrance of their little tent thing, grinning widely.

“Up you get! It’s time to get you a proper home!” With that she turned around and walked away.

Song groaned and sat up.

The light coming into their tent suggested it was early.

Very early.

They had been with the Chevre Sisters a whole week now, technically they had wanted to leave yesterday, but Ida had said that it would probably be best they waited another day.

Something the cheese had revealed she was sure.

She looked at Lio, wo was doing his best to hide his head in his pillow and then at Hugo, who was also sitting up and rubbing at his eyes.

Kipo made a disgruntled noise from her crib. Song was still eternally glad her daughter wasn’t much into screaming.

She got up and lifted Kipo into her arms.

“Let’s go and see what they have to tell us.” She nudged Lio with her foot, who grumbled, but lifted his head away from his pillow to look up at her.

Hugo had at this point gotten up and walked over to her.

Since their talk he had been acting a lot better, keeping close to them again, but not clinging as much as directly after their escape, she was glad he was feeling better.

She offered him her free hand to take and together they left their temporary home. Lio could follow them once he was fully awake.

The Chevre Sisters were sitting outside their cave, they had some food prepared from them, mainly bread and cheese, and seemed to be discussing something in a serious manner.

“No, I think that is west of here.”

“Definitely not! West of here is wolf territory, not cats. It’s east!”

“I actually think it was to the north… or maybe south?”

They gave a simultaneous sigh.

“What are you talking about?” Song asked.

“Well you see,” Ida said, “the cheese has revealed to us that there is a safe place for you to stay, and that you should be able to leave now without running into those people that are after you. However, the cheese is terrible with directions, so we only have some vague impressions to go on.”

“It doesn’t help that we’re blind and never leave our home.” Florabel added.

“But I’m sure we’ll figure it out!” Bev concluded.

“Figure out what?” Lios voice came from behind Song, he still sounded half asleep. Lio was not a morning person.

“How to get to our new home.” Song explained and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

“What we have to go on so far is, it is somewhere near some cats and also near the city, but not in the city.” Florabel said.

“None of that makes sense.” Hugo replied confused.

“Well, we are pretty sure that the cheese is referring to the Timber Cats, which live deep in the forest by that big city you passed on your way here… or was that a different city?”

“There is the one with the Mod Frogs.”

“But aren’t they near Death Stalker territory?”

“Yes, but I think that’s on the other side of skyscraper ridge from us.”

“Isn’t that where the other burrow is though?”

“No, that’s on this side of skyscraper ridge.”

“Wait, where is Umlaut Snake territory in relation to all this?”

“And what about Ratland?”

Song had completely lost track of anything that was going on.

“Could you… point us in a general direction?” she asked carefully.

“Oh, I think we can do that.” Bev said and dunked a hoof into the bowl of cheese in front of her.

She concentrated for a moment.

“That way!” she suddenly exclaimed, pointing to a point on the horizon nearly splashing Hugo with cheese.

“Great! We’ll just… go in that direction and hope for the best I suppose.”

“What’s this new home supposed to look like?” Lio asked.

“It appears to be a house, somewhere near the city, but still a bit into the woods, there seem to be a lot of trees around it, keeping it relatively sheltered and hidden.” Florabel listed off.

“Mind you, it’s still been there for over 200 years, so you will need to renovate regardless of how deserted it has been.” Ida added.

“Okay, so that direction and into the woods, looking for a hidden house.” Song said. She was starting to doubt this idea.

Hugo looked just as doubtful “That does not sound like a very sane way of finding a safe home.” He mumbled.

“I have a compass with me, let me just jot down what direction that is so we won’t get lost.” Lio made his way to their belongings to retrieve the compass.

“Well then, we should pack.” Song said to Hugo.

Hugo just looked at her, then nodded.

It wasn’t like they had any better ideas and staying with the goats wasn’t really an option. There wasn’t enough space and she didn’t think it would make for a good place for Kipo to grow up in, as much as she had come to like the Chevre Sisters.

So, they started packing.

~~~

By the time they were done collecting their stuff and helping remove the makeshift tent, the sun had properly risen into the sky and it was time to say their goodbyes.

“Thank you so much. For everything.” Song said, hugging the Chevre Sisters, one after another. “We will never forget what you did for us.”

“Don’t you worry about it, it was a pleasure having some company.” Ida replied.

“And if you should ever need more help, or if little Kipo should need assistance in controlling her powers, feel free to come visit us any time.” Florabel added.

“Yes! Don’t be complete strangers!” Bev looked like she was going to start crying any time now.

Lio also hugged all the Chevre Sisters and while Hugo didn’t seem to want to hug them, he let Ida pat him on the head.

Now came the part Song really wasn’t looking forward to.

While looking apologetic about it the goats had still insisted that their location needed to remain secret, even from them, so the only way out of the woods was the same way they had gotten in.

Via Bornak and Webber.

~~~

With a wet squelch Song was once again deposited on the ground. She shook herself a little and removed the extra blanket she had wrapped around Kipo, to keep the worst of the pig’s saliva off of her, shaking that too.

She looked at the rest of her family, who were all just as drenched as her, but in comparison to their first experience with the pigs, calm, so all seemed well.

She turned to the two giant pigs.

“Thank you for bringing us back.” She said.

Webber snorted at her and inclined her head a little as if to say, ‘you’re welcome’.

“Yeah, thank you and I suppose we will probably see you again some time.” Lio added with a wry smile.

With that the pigs turned around and walked off again.

“Okay then,” Lio pulled the compass out of his bag, “let’s see where we’re going.”

He turned in place a little, before coming to a halt, facing in the direction of what looked like an overgrown footpath.

“That way I suppose.”

With that they got to walking.

~~~  
They had followed the path and exited Eyeball Woods about an hour later back into the ruined city.

The sun was shining bright and it was comfortably warm for early spring, which they were all grateful for. Bad weather would have been just another burden to deal with, and while they surely would have made do, this was much more comfortable

This was also the first time they were walking through the surface world in broad daylight and everything seemed much different from when they were using the cover of night.

There were colorful flowers everywhere and when Song had curiously stuck her head into one of the giant blossoms, which was playing music, she found giant bees. It seemed they had been producing the music and where quite annoyed at the interruption, so she apologized and backed off.

There had been a lot more insects in general, they had seen a giant butterfly, a giant spider, which thankfully avoided them as much as they it, and on one special occasion, a giant grasshopper had crossed their path.

The impact when it landed and hopped back up had shaken the ground.

It was all so amazing!

And terrifying.

Amazingly terrifying? Terrifyingly amazing? Song couldn’t decide.

The fact, that most of these things could probably kill them on accident and not even notice definitely was something she had thought about.

Still, if they wanted to live on the surface, they would have to get used to it. It wasn’t like they could make the mutes go away, they were just trying to live their lives and she wasn’t Emilia.

They continued their walk through the city, chatting about this and that, Lio and Song discussing some of the science behind the mutes they saw. How they differentiated form the animals of the old world and how their anatomy worked.

Hugo sometimes asked them questions about things and otherwise just listened to them talking, sometimes wandering away a bit to look at something that had caught his eye.

All in all, it was a very pleasant walk.

~~~

By late afternoon they had reached the edge of the city, where the woods started.

A different set of woods than the Eyeball Wood, but no less impressive, just without plants that were seemingly watching them.

After a bit of looking and readjusting their path so they lined back up with the direction the goats had sent them they found another hidden trail and entered the woods.

From there it was just another half hour of walking before they seemingly came to a dead end.

Thick tree trunks and hedges were blocking their way, there wasn’t even enough space to force their way through.

That was weird.

“Shouldn’t it be here somewhere?” Hugo asked.

“The Chevre Sisters did say it was hidden. Maybe we took a wrong turn somewhere?” Lio sounded unsure.

“There was no wrong turn to take, that path was a straight line.” Hugo reasoned.

Song had started looking around meanwhile. The goats wouldn’t have misled them, not on purpose at least, and so far, all of their prophesies had come true.

She approached the tree trunk that was right at the end of the path, it was at least five times as wide as most of the smaller trees in the forest and reached high into the sky. A few meters above them it started sprouting branches, which got thicker the higher you looked.

Song had the thought that it would be fun to climb, if she could get to those first few branches.

The trunk was also covered in what looked like Ivy, just that it had a bluish color and even the smallest leave could have served as a comfortable bed for Kipo.

Song brushed her hand over one and felt a breeze when it moved back slightly.

Huh.

She pushed against the leaves again and got a glimpse of a passage.

There was a hollow at the bottom of the tree, big enough for them to fit through comfortably, covered by the ivy.

“I found it!” She called to her boys with glee. “Come help me, these plants are actually heavier than they look.”

Lio and Hugo looked over at her from where they had been bickering about whether or not there had been a different path or if the goats had been wrong.

Lios eyes became huge.

“A secret passage! I can’t believe this. It’s like a fairy tale.” He laughed, “I always wanted a secret passage into a hide out.”

Hugo came over looking at the ivy.

“I can’t believe no one has found this yet. It’s not that well hidden.” He said.

“This ivy is actually really heavy and sturdy, but we should be able to slip through with some effort.” Song explained, “Let’s see.”

She readjusted Kipo in her arm, who was sound asleep after a long day of interesting things, and pushed at the ivy, after a second Hugo and Lio helped her and together they managed to open a decent gap.

They all slipped through and then made sure the ivy fell back into place behind them and then started walking towards the other side.

It wasn’t a long walk and after a few seconds they emerged into a clearing. Song squinted against the setting evening sun.

There was a house at the back of the clearing, in the shade of some of the giant trees that were surrounding it.

And it really was a proper house, not a cabin, with two stories and a winding staircase that let you reach the top floor from the outside.

It was mostly made from wood, but the architecture of it looked modern, even though 200 years of disuse had taken its toll.

“It’s perfect.” Song smiled.

Lio nodded in agreement, “It really is.”

“Doesn’t that seem nearly too convenient? There’s just this perfect house, that is hidden and relatively well preserved, here in the woods, in the middle of nowhere. It seems suspicious.” Hugo was squinting at the clearing, as if he was looking for a trap.

“Well, we will just have to go in and see I suppose.” Song said with a laugh and took a step towards their new home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me calling myself out for putting this incredibly convenient house there for them.  
> But seriously, have you guys seen pictures of these modern houses, built in the middle of no where, often times woods? They're so cool.
> 
> Updates might get a bit irregular from here, because life has actually started happening again and also I don't have the rest of the story planned out in detail.  
> This chapter for example, did not want to be written and I'm still not 100% happy with it, but here it is anyway.
> 
> I hope you can still enjoy the story, even if there might be some waiting for new chapters and as always, kudos and comments are all appreciated <3 I love reading what you guys think


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kipo goes exploring and makes some new friends, much to her brothers distress.

5 years later

~~~~~

Song was tending their garden, where they had managed to plant all sorts of fruit and herbs over the years, pulling out weeds and making sure everything got enough sunlight, or more shade in some cases.

When they had first fled the burrow Lio and her had made sure to take a bunch of books about gardening, electronics, plumbing and other assorted handiworks, that could be useful for building up your own life on the surface.

Granted, the gardening books where only partially useful, since they were from the old world and the vegetation had changed a lot, but with some trial and error they had made do.

She straightened up from where she was crouching and surveyed everything.

Their house was looking much better than it first had, all holes in the roof had been fixed, the windows were clean, and the facade had been fixed up to look more presentable.

They had also acquired some more furniture, that had been a pain to get back to the house.

They weren’t exactly expecting visitors, but a clean home was much more comfortable to live in.

They even had electricity!

There had been an old generator behind the house, a bit rusted, but otherwise in good condition. They had taken some trips into town and gone looking for electronic stores, taking whatever seemed useful and had fixed it up. It was running smoothly now, and they had a working household.

The only thing that wasn’t properly fixed up yet was the plumbing. The pipes had been rusted through and they hadn’t been able to find any proper replacement.

Also, the water supplier the house had been connected to was obviously no longer in business.

Fortunately, enough there was a small river not too far into the woods and they had started keeping a water tank, so they only had to go about once a week to refill that.

Not ideal, but Song had expected worse living conditions when they first decided to flee to the surface, so she was pretty happy with what they had.

Suddenly swearing could be heard from the house.

Song looked over to see her husband stumble out the front door, soaking wet.

“I take it the pipes broke again?” She asked with a laugh.

Lio had wanted to give fixing the plumbing one more shot. He had replaced all the broken pipes with somewhat less rusted ones they had found during one of their excursions further into the city, and had connected the whole thing to their water tank.

“I think we will just have to live without it.” He sighed, “So much stuff from the old world is still in great condition, but somehow all the pipes we can find are rusted.”

“It’s only ever the nonmetal stuff that seems to be in remarkably good condition, I wonder if that is because the micro organisms that would have started the decaying process got eliminated during the catastrophe or the bugs that would have eaten the wood all grew so much in size they moved on to bigger food sources.” Song speculated.

“Metal rusting however is a chemical reaction, so it would make sense that that still happens normally. It’s honestly very fascinating, I would love to look into it further, but we don’t have the equipment.”

Most of their science equipment had to be left behind in favor of more necessary items, much to both of their dismay.

“We can see if we can find something next time we’re in the city to test if wood still decays at the same rate as it did in the old world.” Lio assured her.

Then he looked around.

“I haven’t heard the kids in a while, did they go exploring?”

“Kipo got restless, so Hugo took her into the woods to play and climb some trees. Maybe it will exhaust her enough for a nap.”

As Kipo had gotten older she had turned from a curious baby into an extremely cute and smart toddler and now a still very smart, but also incredibly active, curious and open child.

Kipo had a hard time sitting still, always running around and asking questions and dragging her brother into playing with her. Also she loved climbing, which her new grasp on how to turn her hands into paws, with claws had only reinforced.

~~~

About a year ago they had all been playing in the garden, having been roped into a game of tag by their youngest child, when a giant beetle had dropped from one of the trees, right in front of Kipo.

It hadn’t been the first time a mute had made its way into their hideout. 

As well as it was hidden, it wasn’t completely cut off from the world, and especially tree dwelling mutes were able to find them. So far no properly intelligent ones had sniffed them out, but the occasional giant insect dropped in.

Normally this wouldn’t be a problem, Song had a good grasp on her powers by now, though she hadn’t gone full mute yet, and Hugo had grown into a full adult, now bigger and stronger than any human. Together they would usually be able to either scare the intruder off, or they would stock up their food supply, while Lio made sure Kipo didn’t get hurt.

However, this time the bug had dropped directly in front of Kipo.

It had a giant horn at its front, it zeroed in on Kipo and reared up on its back legs, before charging at her.

Song had already started running, but she wasn’t going to be fast enough, even with her mute powers.

It was at this point that Kipos instincts kicked in for the first time since she had been a baby. She automatically threw up her arms to protect her face and they, as well as her legs, transformed into the mega jaguars’ strong limbs, simultaneously she grew a tail to keep her balance when the beetle rammed into her.

Upon impact Kipo dug her feet into the ground and grabbed onto the bugs horn, after sliding backwards for a while they both came to a halt. Kipo hissed at the beetle, which seemed confused.

It was at this point that Song rammed into it from the side, turning it onto its back, before running up to her daughter.

Kipo was staring at her paws with big eyes.

Song crouched down in front of her.

“Kipo?” Song asked, getting her daughter to look at her, “Are you alright?”

“I got paws.” Kipo whispered with what sounded like awe. “Does that mean I’m like you mommy?” The girl inquired with a serious look on her face, it was adorable.

They had told Kipo about Song being half mute, through an experiment, the first time she had to use her powers in front of her, but hadn’t mentioned Kipo being the same, out of fear that their daughter would try to transform and accidentally lose herself in the jaguar.

“You are in a way, see, your mom is part monkey, you are part Jaguar, which is a kind of big cat.” Lios voice sounded from where he had walked up to them, now standing behind his wives’ shoulder, looking at Kipo with a small smile, but Song could see the worry in his eyes.

Hugo had also approached them, but was standing a little way back, watching the struggling beetle with wary eyes.

Kipo stared at her parents for a second then…

“THAT’S SO COOL!” she shouted, startling them.

“Does that mean I can transform all the time now like mom? Can I hear really well too? And smell? And see? These paws are so cool, I’m sure I can climb trees really well with them now! And I have a tail! Did you see my tail?! Why didn’t you tell me sooner? Mom and me could be superheroes together! And I can help with the mutes now!” Kipo spoke in rapid succession.

Song was a bit startled by her excitement, she had expected at least some upset.

Hugo snorted, having seen the face she was making.

“Did you really expect her to be too upset about it? She’s your daughter, of course she would be thrilled to be a science experiment.”

“Why would I be upset? This is the coolest thing ever!” Kipo was bouncing in place.

At that point Lio had chuckled, before breaking into full blown laughter and Song had joined him.

They had some explaining and teaching to do, but evidently Kipo would be fine, they all would be.

~~~

It had taken some time for Kipo to calm down and her family to tell her everything.

Why she was that way, why they hadn’t told her before and that she would need to learn some control.

Kipo had listened attentively, always eager to learn and had voiced her understanding. She had always been a smart kid, she knew her family loved her, and they wouldn’t try to keep secrets from her unless they were really important secrets.

Then her mom had taken her on a really fun trip, where they met some weird goats and Kipo learned how to switch between being her human self and having really awesome mute powers. She could change parts of herself at will now! It was great!

She also learned how to make cheese, which was also fun, but not nearly as exciting.

Mom and dad had said to be careful, because she could forget how to be human and then would be stuck as a jaguar, which didn’t seem too bad to her, but mom and dad looked sad about it and Hugo had said that she wouldn’t be able to ask questions anymore if she was a jaguar, so she wouldn’t do that! There were still so many things she wanted to know!

Thinking about her big brother, where was he? Kipo had wanted to go into the forest to explore and her mom had allowed it on the condition that she always stay with Hugo, since her parents were both busy with work.

That was fine, she loved her big brother a lot, he was fun and would always play with her if she asked, but he was also sometimes very sad and she didn’t know why, but then she would give him her best hugs and he would smile at her.

So, she had agreed readily. It would be fun!

They had climbed some trees, Hugo was a few branches higher than her and then Kipo had gotten distracted by something in the distance and had started making her way towards it, but then it had sped up, so she had started running. Now she didn’t see it anymore, and she didn’t see Hugo either.

She didn’t even know where she was. She had never seen this part of the forest before. Was she lost? Well, that was okay, she could just transform and find her way back.

She concentrated and transformed her eyes, ears and nose. Perfect, now she would have a much easier time finding her way through the woods.

Then she saw something weird.

With her now much better eyes she spotted a tree that had carvings in them, and really high up at that.

All thoughts of getting home forgotten, Kipo started walking towards the weird tree.

She arrived at a clearing and there were a lot of carved trees and what looked like tree houses. 

Her parents had promised to make her a treehouse one day, she had seen them in some picture books.

There were also some cats running around, but not like the ones from the books from the old world, these were big and walked on two legs and they were wearing funny clothes.

They were obviously mutes. Kipo had never met any mutes that could build houses. The only mutes she had ever met that could even talk where the Chevre Sisters and her brother. This was a whole group of them!

She wondered if they would want to be her friends.

She would never tell her parents, but sometimes she wanted to play with people that weren’t her family. She loved them, but she wanted to meet more people! Make friends and have fun! The books here parents read to her always talked about such a big world and she wanted to see all of it.

But she knew that she was still very little, and her parents were scared she would get hurt, so she stayed and only explored the woods around their home.

Suddenly she heard a sound from behind herself.

“Well, well, well, what do we have here, an interloper?”

Kipo turned around and saw a big white cat, with light blue eyes. She looked so fluffy! Kipo wondered if she could hug her.

The cat raised an eyebrow at her. “You are one tiny and weird interloper, what are you? Human or mute?”

“I’m Kipo!”

The cat looked amuse.

“I’m Molly Yarnchopper.”

~~~

Hugo was panicking.

He was aware that Kipo was prone to wandering off, but so far she had always been in easing finding distance, especially since he was usually able to just follow her scent until he found her again, inspecting something that caught her interest.

But not this time, there was only a faint sense of her smell left, which meant she was quite far away at this point. He could have sworn she had just been right behind him.

He had climbed the tree a little faster than her, since he knew she could easily follow him and that way he was able to make sure none of the branches would break away from under her, checking every few minutes to see her still following close behind. Then he had gone back to climbing higher and then the next time he looked back she was gone. Stupid silent jaguar paws.

He wasn’t proud of the shrill sound of alarm he had let out at discovering her disappearance, even if Song insisted his more monkey like reactions were adorable. He was an adult now, he was not adorable.

Kipo had not reacted to the sound, probably because she was too far away, which wasn’t a good sign, usually when she heard him make a sound like that she came back immediately.

She was aware that the surface held many dangers for her, mute superpowers or not, they had made sure to get that into her head.

Hugo had taken a few moments to take some deep breaths to calm down, like Song had shown him, and then proceeded to go search for Kipo.

Her smell was faint, but still there, so he began to follow it, before it disappeared completely.

It took him nearly 30 minutes of quick walking before her scent became stronger again. He made a mental note to complain to Song about not having chosen something slower than a jaguar to experiment with.

They had never been further than a 15 minute walk from their home while playing in the woods before, knowing that there were probably dangerous mutes around and Kipo was still so small, she couldn’t even properly hug him, because her arms were to short, which he teased her about mercilessly. Kipo loved giving and receiving hugs and the fact that she couldn’t give him a proper one annoyed her to no end.

It was at this point that Hugo noticed the carvings in the trees.

If there were proper carvings in the trees and not just bitemarks from insects that meant the mutes that made them were intelligent and Kipos scent led right towards them.

He just hoped they wouldn’t eat an adorable little child.

He started walking faster.

When he finally emerged into a clearing, filled with carved trees and houses, his eyes nearly bulged out of his head.

There was his little sister, safe and sound, half transformed, surrounded by mute cats in flannels and sitting on top of a giant flee.

There was a grey cat looking at Kipo on the flee like this was the most adorable thing he had ever seen and a white one, with her head in her paw, looking exasperated.

The rest of the cats where looking either incredibly confused or incredibly amused.

“No Yumyan, we can’t keep her, she has said herself she has a family to get back to.”

“But look at her! She’s clearly at least part cat, she would fit in so well! And Pierre already loves her!”

“She’s still a kitten, she needs her family.”

The grey cat, Yumyan, looked incredibly disappointed at that, Kipo was just giggling, apparently enjoying herself immensely.

Then she sniffed the air.

Her eyes locked on Hugo and her face lit up.

“Hey Hugo! Look, I made some friends!” She shouted, waving excitedly.

As one all the mute cats turned towards him.

He resisted the urge to hide behind something.

“And who are you?” The white cat asked him.

Before he could answer Kipo piped up from her perch, “That’s my brother! Hugo!”

Yumyan blinked at her, “That’s a monkey, you’re mostly human.” He said, sounding confused.

“So?” Kipo looked equally confused.

“I’m a mandrill actually.” Hugo interrupted, for a lack of anything better to say and before this cat could say something that would upset Kipo. Or him.

For example, that he couldn’t be her brother if they were from two different species.

The white cat sighed, “I’m Molly Yarnchopper, and this is Yumyan Hammerpaw, the leader of the timbercats. Why have you intruded on out territory?” she was eyeing him sharply.

Hugo swallowed, “I didn’t mean to intrude, I was just looking for Kipo, as she wandered off while under my supervision.”

Kipo at that point jumped down from the flea and ran over, throwing herself into him, familiar with what she wanted Hugo enveloped her in a hug.

“Sorry I wandered off, but I saw something shiny and then I met these really cool cats and Pierre and they’re all very nice and my friends now.” His little sister babbled, grinning up at him. She still had her jaguar features and he could feel a content purr rumble in her chest.

The fact that Kipo could purr had been one of the most adorable discoveries any of them had ever made and Lio had not wanted to let Kipo go for a good ten minutes afterwards, too overcome with the cuteness of the situation. Song had to pry him from a very confused, but still incredibly happy to receive cuddles, Kipo.

“Please give me a shout next time you see something shiny in the distance, before running off.” Hugo told his baby sister sternly, or as sternly as he could while his heart felt like it was going to melt from cuteness overload. His baby sister really did have an unfair advantage, being this adorable.

The cats apparently agreed, as he had heard a collective “Awww” from most of them.

“Well, if the kitten says he’s her family he’s just as welcome here as her.” Yumyan decided. “You can come visit as much as you want.”

“Really?!” Kipo exclaimed. “Thank you!” she seemed incredibly excited at the prospect of spending more time with her new friends.

Hugo was still a bit wary, he didn’t know if he could trust them.

“Look kid,” Molly addressed him, probably sensing his reluctance, “I understand that you’re wary, it’s a cruel world, but we wouldn’t hurt a kitten and you barely look out of adolescence yourself. Also Yumyan is a big softie and anyone who can befriend Pierre automatically has our respect. So, relax, you’re safe here.”

Hugo looked at her and nodded, “It will probably take me a while to be convinced of that but, thank you.”

The white cat grinned at him, “Good, it wouldn’t do you well to be too trusting.”

“Let me give you a tour, we have much to show you.” The leader of the timbercats suddenly exclaimed, walking up to them and lifting both of them up into a hug, before starting to walk deeper into the village.

Kipo gave an excited squeal, while Hugo just resigned himself to getting dragged along.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a quick heads up that there are going to be some more time skips in future chapters. If any of you should ever get lost as to where in the timeline we are, feel free to ask in the comments so I can clarify and try to be more clear about it.
> 
> Yumyan is a big softie and that is canon, I think he would be absolutely overwhelmed with how adorable little Kipo is.
> 
> Also, if you want to yell at me about Kipo, this story or anything else you can find me on tumblr:  
> https://raindropdragon.tumblr.com/


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Don't run of into the woods kids, your parents might get worried you got kidnapped by evil scientists.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TIL that a group of cats is called a clowder.

By the time Kipo had worn herself out playing and exploring and talking to all the timbercats the sun was already low in the sky, the trees casting long shadows.

Hugo was acutely aware that Song and Lio would start worrying soon, if they hadn’t already.

Kipo was currently sitting on Pierre again, talking to Yumyan. Or more accurately, talking at Yumyan, telling him about constellations she liked.

Hugo walked over to them from where he had been taking a break from all the socializing and talking. He really wasn’t used to being around other people.

The only other time he had met anywhere near this many new faces was after Emilia had locked him up and the different scientists had begun walking in and out of his room.

He didn’t like thinking about that time.

“Kipo, we need to get going, our parents will get worried if we aren’t home by sundown.”

Kipo made a disappointed sound but slid down from Pierre’s back. She then promptly stretched her arms up for Hugo to carry her.

He rolled his eyes, but lifted her into his arms.

“Tired?” he asked.

“Mhmm.” Was Kipos only answer as she gave a small nod, cuddling against him. Hugo smiled fondly at her.

He looked up at the timbercats, which had gathered around them.

“Thank you very much for your hospitality, but we really need to get going.”

“Bye bye,” Kipo yawned, “I hope I can come visit again.”

“Any time Kitten.” Said Yumyan with a fond grin on his face. “You’ll both always be welcome here.”

Kipo gave him a brilliant yet tired smile.

“Let me accompany you home, the woods aren’t safe in the dark.” Molly spoke up from where she was standing next to Yumyan.

“You really don’t have to.” Hugo protested.

“I couldn’t live with myself if anything happened to you two on your way home, especially after we kept you for so long.”

Hugo hesitated for another moment, usually they would be fine, but Kipo was already dozing off in his arms and he was quite exhausted as well.

The only thing stopping him was that he didn’t know what Lio and Song would say to him showing a mute the way to their hideout. On the other hand, the timbercats had been nothing but kind to them.

He decided to trust them.

“Alright then.” He nodded. Molly grinned at him.

~~~

After having said their goodbyes properly and Hugo promising a teary eyed Yumyan that they would visit again, they started their track home, together with Molly.

Kipo fell asleep in his arms not five minutes in, her body transforming back to look completely human, and he had to adjust his hold on her, in order to walk more comfortably and without risk of dropping her.

Molly, who had watched him do so spoke up, “You really are an older brother to that kitten, huh?”

“Yes, her parents raised me, and I am part of their family, even if they are humans.” He answered defensively.

This was something he hadn’t been sure about for a while himself, but after countless reassurances from Song and Lio, both spoken and unspoken, he was finally completely sure of his place with them.

“Easy kid, wasn’t an accusation or anything. It’s very cute seeing how much you two care for each other.” She paused, “You said her parents are humans? How’s that work anyway? The kitten is obviously part mute.”

Hugo hesitated, before settling on an answer that would be both true and not reveal too much.

“So is her mother.”

He trusted the timbercats not to hurt them, but he wasn’t sure how they would react to the revelation that Kipo was an experiment.

“Huh, didn’t know something like that was possible.”

“Those two are unique as far as I’m aware.” Who knew, maybe there were other crazy human scientists out there, making themselves into half mutes.

He doubts it.

Molly was giving him a calculating look, Hugo was half expecting her to keep digging, as she clearly didn’t fully believe him, but she just shrugs, before focusing back on the path.

“How far is your home anyway?”

“Um… with the pace we’re going it should be about another 40 minutes until we arrive.”

“Well, let’s not dawdle then.”

~~~

Lio was watching Song stare at the last rays of sunlight from the setting sun. There hadn’t been any sign from Hugo and Kipo yet.

They had been late before and he wasn’t too worried yet, only once there was no more light would he be truly concerned for their wellbeing, but Song seemed to think something was up and her instincts were usually correct.

Now more than ever.

He walked up to her and put a hand on her shoulder. Song looked at him and he gave her a kiss on the cheek.

“If you want, we can go looking for them, they shouldn’t be too far anyway.” He smiled gently at her.

Song smiled back at him “It would ease my mind a little. I just can’t shake the feeling that something is wrong.”

She took his hand and together they walked towards the entrance of their hideout.

Something in Lio still got childishly gleeful at the thought of their little hidden home, straight out of a fairy tale. He might be a man of science, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t enjoy some more childish fantasies.

They exited through the thick ivy cover and emerged into the rapidly darkening forest.

Lio could barely see anything, but out of the corner of his eyes he could make out Songs ears and eyes changing.

“I can’t hear or smell them.” Song said suddenly, a note of alarm in her voice.

“Are you sure? They could just be a bit further away.” Lio tried to reassure her, but there was a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach.

Song took another deep sniff.

“Their scent is there, but barely, it’s old Lio, they haven’t been close by in hours.”

With those words Song started going deeper into the woods, following an, to Lio, invisible trail.

After about 5 minutes of walking Songs ears suddenly twitched.

“I can hear Hugo, he’s talking to someone.”

“Kipo?”

“No, it’s not Kipo, there’s someone else.”

Lios mind was racing, was it Emilia? Or someone else? Another scientist from their burrow? A mute?

Song must have seen the panic on his face, because she added, “It’s not anyone whose voice I recognize.”

At leas t it wasn’t Emilia then.

They kept walking towards the voices, Lio could faintly hear them now as well, it sounded like Hugo was just making small talk, which was a good sign, he squeezed Songs hand reassuringly.

Shortly after their children came into view. Together with a mute cat, wearing a blue flannel and holding an axe. Or was that a guitar? Upon closer inspection it was a guitar axe.

That was new.

Song straightened up, transforming back and walked towards them. Lio followed.

“Hugo! Kipo! There you are, I was starting to worry.” She called out to them.

Hugo looked up at that and smiled at her, some of the tension in his shoulders drained away.

The mute cat just straightened up a little, she didn’t seem surprised by their appearance at all.

“I apologize Song, unfortunately we lost track of time.” He said, “As you can see, we got a bit sidetracked.” Slightly inclining his head towards the cat beside him.

She grinned at them, “I am Molly Yarnchopper of the timbercats. Those two wandered into our territory earlier, but I can assure you they were perfectly safe, we wouldn’t hurt kids.” A short pause, “At least not without a good reason.”

Hugo pulled a face at being called a kid, but otherwise seemed to agree with that statement.

“They were kind enough to let us stay the day and entertained Kipo until she had exhausted herself.”

Lio looked at his sleeping daughter in Hugos arms. It was a wonder she hadn’t woken up, she must have been really tired.

“I’m Lio, this is my wife Song. Thank you for having an eye on our children for the day.” Lio spoke up, as Song was still regarding Molly with some suspicion.

Song had always been an open and friendly person, but he had learned that when it came to their children, she could get quite nasty. However, after a few more seconds Song relaxed, as it became obvious that Molly had no intention of harming any of them.

“Yes, thank you a lot. I would invite you back to our home, but I suspect you might want to make your way back before the last bit of light is gone.” Song offered.

“Nah, the dark doesn’t bother me. I just wanted to make sure those two make it back in one piece. The other mutes around here know better than to attack a timbercat.” Molly proclaimed proudly.

Lios mind snatched on that word again. “If you don’t mind me asking, what exactly are the timbercats?”

“It’s the name my clowder uses to refer to themselves, we chose it because we’re very proud of our woodwork.” Molly explained.

Hugo perked up, he had made his way over to them at this point. “Their handiwork is really quite impressive. They have entire buildings carved out of trees and some very impressive artworks decorating their whole village.” He told them excitedly.

Molly looked proud to have left such an impression on him.

“You can come visit and see for yourselves if you want, we already told your kids that they’re always welcome back. Our leader, Yumyan Hammerpaw, has taken quite a liking to the kitten. She’s a ferocious little warrior.”

Lio had to smile, that was in fact a good description of his daughter and it was good to know that her charms extended outside of their family. They were all quite biased after all.

His eyes fell on the axe again.

“You wouldn’t know how to work with metal as well, would you?”

“Of course, we do, but our metalwork is not as refined as out woodwork.” Molly was looking at him expectantly.

“Do you have any experience with plumbing.” He asked with a grin.

Song burst into laughter next to him and Hugo gave him a look like he couldn’t quite believe he just asked that.

Molly just grinned.

“I think we might be able to help you there.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If any of you have seen my motivation please send it to me, I seem to have misplaced it along with my last braincell.
> 
> Anyway, short chapter, but at least I wrote something.  
> How've you all been?


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Song attempts to go full mute

2 years later

Everything was fine. 

She was perfectly calm.

This was going to work, and no one would get hurt or stuck as a giant monkey, unable to take care of her family.

On second thought, she might be a little nervous.

Song was sitting in the clearing between her house and the entrance to their hideout, taking some slow breaths, trying to calm herself down.

Early afternoon sunlight was streaming through the treetops, painting their home into soft light and rustling shadows.

A little ways away Kipo was excitedly telling Molly and Shoelace about the latest giant bug that had found its way to them, telling them all about how awesome it had been and how cool her mom and brother had looked when they got rid of it. Molly was grinning at her, sometimes butting in with her own stories about the mutes she had defeated, and Shoelace was gushing about Yumyan and his conquests.

Lio and Hugo were having a much more subdued conversation some distance from the group, both of them seemed a little tense, but they made a good attempt at hiding it, Song just knew her boys too well.

Of course, there was a reason why she had all of them sitting around in the clearing.

Song was going to attempt to turn into a mega mute. Not just transforming parts of herself, but transforming completely.

Kipo had turned seven a few months ago and had a solid grasp on her powers by now, turning parts of herself at a moments notice. She did it mostly for fun, since climbing around the timbercats home had become one of her favorite pastimes during the last two years since she had befriended them.

The first few times Song had watched her she had worried about her daughter slipping and falling, but Kipo had the grace of a cat and even if she did, she always landed safely on her feet. Also, there was always at least one of the timbercats around and watching her.

Kipo was a little wilder than a human child should probably be, but since she wasn’t, in fact, completely human Song was sure that was fine. She hadn’t shown any inclination to run off into the wild as a tiny Jaguar at least, and with the timbercats she had a healthy outlet for her more cat like tendencies.

The timbercats in general had been great. After the initial confusion their family’s composition had caused them, they had full heartedly accepted Kipo into their group and Hugo, Lio and herself as well, to a lesser extent. They were still always welcome, but Kipo had a special place in all their hearts it seemed.

Which was why Molly and Shoelace were here today alongside her family. They were acting as an additional safety net should something go wrong, and Song should end up going on a rampage, not recognizing her family.

They had promised they would protect them and get them to safety, all the while reassuring her that they were confident she was fully capable of handling her transformation.

Explaining Kipo and her… condition to them, their experiment and why they had done something like that, had also been quite an experience, but after some confusion and apprehension they had quickly accepted them and had focused their outrage on Emilia and her actions.

Well, should Emilia ever cross paths with them she was sure to have a bad time.

A hand on her shoulder startled Song out of her recollections.

“You don’t have to do this today you know.” Looking up she saw Lios concerned face. “There is no rush, just do this when you’re ready.”

“That’s just it though, I don’t think I ever will be one hundred percent ready for this, so now is as good a time as any. We have allies and Kipo is finally old enough to properly understand the dangers her mute half poses to her. I don’t want to risk waiting for something really bad to happen and transforming from desperation, rather than in a controlled environment.” She knew the risks of what she was about to do. That did not make it any easier.

Lio squeezed her shoulder.

Song gave him a grateful smile.

Taking one last calming breath she got up and addressed the other people around her.

“Okay, let’s try this.”

“You can do it mommy!” Kipo cheered, now looking at her with a beaming grin, “And even if you get stuck as a giant monkey, we’ll still love you anyway!”

“Kipo!” Hugo and Lio both exclaimed, Hugo in amusement, while Lio sounded more exasperated.

Molly let out a laugh, “I’m sure your mom will be just fine kitten. She’s more stubborn about keeping you safe than a timbercat is about perfecting their carving.”

Song snorted, but didn’t disagree.

Lio just shook his head with a fond smile, gave her a kiss and then walked back to the rest of the group, giving her room.

Song centered herself and concentrated.

She thought about her family and her need to protect them, thought about the strength she needed to keep them safe.

“Herbs in.”

Her senses exploded.

The world came into sharp focus, smells and noises flooded her brain and for a moment she panicked, overwhelmed.

She was so much taller than she was used to being and there was so much happening around her that she had never noticed with her dull human senses.

Then she heard a noise, a high-pitched squeal.

Her head whipped around and landed on the group of people watching her.

The source of the noise was a child.

Kipo, her daughter, her brain supplied helpfully and all at once she managed to ground herself.

Kipo was bouncing excitedly in place, squealing and gesticulating, she was talking Song noticed.

“…so BIG, and fluffy, she looks like she can give great hugs like this, can I go hug mommy?!? Can I, please?!?” She was tugging on Lios shirt.

Lio was looking up at Song with concern, but under that Song could smell that he was afraid. She couldn’t tell if it was of her or for her, but that was a problem for later.

Hugo was standing on Lios other side, trying too look nonchalant but he had one hand around Lios arm and the tense lines around his face betrayed his worry.

Lastly there were Molly and Shoelace, who were the most relaxed, but were still tense and ready to act at a moment’s notice.

“Song?” Lios hesitant voice reached her ears. She focused her attention on him and nodded once. The tension drained out of his shoulders almost immediately, but the worry in his eyes stayed.

Seeing that her father had relaxed, and her mom wasn’t attacking anyone Kipo decided it was safe to approach.

And approach she did, fast.

She ran up to Song, Lio trying to grab the back of her shirt and missing, transforming her legs, and pounced.

Song scooped her out of the air with one giant hand and hugged her, now even tinier to her, daughter.

Kipo extracted her face from the fur on Songs chest to first beam up at her and then shout back at her dad.

“I knew she would give great hugs like this”

Lio gave a startled laugh.

“You did say that sweetheart.”

“Just running up to her like that still wasn’t very smart Kipo,” Hugo spoke up, “you could still have gotten hurt by startling her.”

He was trying to sound all serious, but he was visibly more relaxed than before as well.

“You’re just jealous I got to hug her first!” Kipo shouted back, sticking out her tongue at her brother.

Song gently bopped her on the head and made a, in her opinion, reprimanding sound for the action.

Kipo just giggled at that.

She then stuck out her other hand towards Hugo, looking at him expectantly.

After a short moment of hesitation, he climbed onto her hand and she lifted him up and gave him a hug as well. He huffed but hugged her back.

Kipo meanwhile had decided sitting on her mothers’ hand was too boring and had begun climbing up to her shoulder, where she settled with one hand in the longer fur framing Songs face.

There was a clicking sound.

Song turned her face to see Lio holding a camera, when he’d had time to get it, she wasn’t sure, but he had just taken a picture of all of them together like this. Her fully mute son, her half mute daughter, partially transformed and herself, fully transformed. She was sure they made quite the picture like this. Literally now.

“As much as I regret breaking this up, we still need to see if Song can transform back again.” Molly commented from where she was watching the whole scene with a relaxed grin. Shoelace was watching as well, with eyes even rounder than normal.

Song gave another slight nod, trying not to disturb Kipo too much on her perch, before setting Hugo back down. Kipo decided to get down on her own, sliding down her mothers’ arm and gracefully landing on her feet after a short fall.

Song straightened back up while her children walked back to the group.

This was the tricky part, she knew that she had to concentrate on what made her human, on her family and their friends and wanting to be with them again, in human form, but at the same time she could feel the protective instincts of her mute half run on overdrive. She was aware on an instinctual level that they were never completely safe, as long as Emilia was still out there and Kipo was still so small she had to protect them and her mute half was whispering to her about how much easier that would be if she just stayed like this, big and strong and so much more sharp than in human form.

Song shook her head slightly, looking at her family again.

The concerned look had returned to Lios face and Hugo was also back to looking slightly tense, the only one who looked more expectant than anything was Kipo, who had grabbed Hugos hand and was swinging it between them. She smiled up at her mother, full of confidence in her.

Her daughter’s unshakable faith in her was what did the trick. She couldn’t disappoint Kipo, couldn’t just leave her with a giant monkey for a mother, couldn’t do that to either of her kids or her husband. She loved them too much for that.

She could feel herself shrinking, her senses dulling.

She blinked and was back to her normal height.

Looking down at herself revealed she was fully back to her human self, clothes and all.

She really needed to figure out how her clothes always survived the transformation, by all means, they should be at least severely torn.

She heard fast steps approaching and looked up just in time to catch Kipo in a now human sized hug.

“I knew you could do it mommy!” her daughter declared, and Song laughed.

Lio and Hugo arrived shortly after and she pulled them into a family hug.

“As fluffy as you were as a monkey, I’m glad to have back the less hairy version of you.” Lio told her with a relieved grin.

Hugo just squeezed her slightly tighter. She would never get used to how big he now was, easily enveloping all of them in their hug.

“I’m glad to be human sized again as well.” She said with a laugh. “Though, I would have thought I would be taller as a mute if I’m being honest.”

They all stepped apart again, except Kipo, who kept clinging to Song. Maybe there had been some worry after all.

“I would have thought so too,” Lio contemplated, “you also lacked any additional limbs that are usually tell-tale signs of mega mutes.”

“Well, we can think more about that later, how about for now we just celebrate a successful experiment with some food. I feel like I just ran a marathon. Apparently transforming like that does take a lot of energy.” Song smiled.

“Food!” Kipo cheered.

“That explains why Kipo is always hungry at least.” Hugo said.

Song and Lio just laughed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Do you ever just procrastinate writing for over a week and then type out an entire chapter in a day, but not the chapter you had actually planned to write?  
> Yeah.  
> Anyway.  
> I hope you enjoyed this chapter!


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's Kipos 10th birthday, what adventurese will she have.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My brain does not perceive time passing in any way that makes sense, I was sure it's only been a week since I updated, then I actually check and it's been nearly two.  
> Oops.

3 years later

The day of her 10th birthday Kipo woke up at the crack of dawn to the smell of pancakes already in the air.

With more energy than any sane person should have at six in the morning she bounced out of bed and basically flew into the kitchen, where her dad was standing at the stove. Next to him was a giant stack of pancakes, the tower big enough to have begun leaning to one side.

She considered surprise hugging him, but her mom had made it clear that startling people while they were handling hot or sharp things was a very bad idea the very first time she had tackled her into a hug while she was cutting vegetables. Thankfully, no one got hurt, but Kipo still had to listen to her mom calmly lecture her about safety in the kitchen, so when Kipo went up to her dad to give him a good morning hug she made sure he could hear her approaching and that she didn’t jostle him too much.

“Now who do we have here? It’s the birthday girl!” With a grin Lio put his utensils down and returned his daughters hug, dropping a kiss on her head for good measure. “Happy birthday sweetheart.” He said with a smile.

“Thanks!” Kipo replied cheerfully, “Where are mom and Hugo? I want to say good morning to them!”

“They’re packing up some things for our trip, making sure we’re well prepared and the house is in order, just in case.” Lio replied, “They should be in the living room. You can tell them that breakfast is nearly ready while you’re at it.”

Kipo beamed at him and bounced towards the living room.

The living room was the biggest room in the house, with a window front that looked out over the garden.

Over the years it had been decorated with an assortment of furniture, none of it fitting together, an assortment of patterns and fabrics and materials, but it was comfortable, and the couch with the faded floral pattern was Kipos favorite place to spend time with her family, when they weren’t out exploring.

There were also some shelfs, self-made and some slightly crooked that were stuffed full of an assortment of books from all kinds of genres, fiction to science to cooking. The Oaks had taken to grabbing any book they could get their hands on over the years, so Kipo, who loved to read and be read to, knew lots of things about lots of topics, but wasn’t an expert on any of them. It was fun though, learning new things and she would rather know a thousand facts about hundreds of different things than every last detail of just one.

One corner of the living room was dedicated to music. There was a record player her parents had gone to great lengths to restore, some records, a more modern radio, capable of playing both cassettes and CDs, and an old karaoke machine her dad had brought home with a gleam in his eyes. However, they didn’t just have music to listen to, they also had instruments, mainly guitars, since those were Kipo and Lios preferred instruments, but with some effort her parents had also gotten their hands on a piano for Hugo. It was nothing fancy, just a plain piano, made of some dark wood, but Hugo had been incredibly excited to be able to continue playing music and had actually teared up when Song and Lio had presented it to him.

He had also immediately started teaching Kipo to play so they could make music together. It was definitely a passion their whole family shared.

Kipo could already hear soft piano notes when she approached the living room, the door was slightly ajar, and she pushed it the rest of the way open.

Her mom was sitting on the floor, taking inventory of the things they were going to take with them, scattered around her were some rations, multiple water bottles, some empty bags, and a change of clothes for each of them.

It was only supposed to be a day trip, but her parents liked to be prepared for the worst-case scenario.

Hugo sat at the piano, playing a soft melody Kipo didn’t recognize.

When she stepped into the room her mother looked up and started smiling.

“There’s my birthday girl!” she said getting up from the floor and opening her arms. Kipo took the invitation and flung herself into her mom’s arms. Laughing Song swung her in a circle.

“I can’t believe it’s been 10 years already! You’ve grown so much.” She gave a giggling Kipo an exaggerated kiss on the cheek. “Next thing I know you’ll be all grown up!” Song said slightly wistful, still smiling at Kipo, but now her face was a touch softer.

“As if that would ever stop her from being an affectionate little monkey.” Hugo commented, getting up from his seat.

“Mom and you are the only monkeys here!” Kipo grinned, wriggling out of her mother’s arms and launching herself at her brother instead. She tried hugging him, but her arms were too short, and she was starting to slip from where she was hanging off his neck. Hugo huffed and steadied her by hugging her to his chest.

“I will have you know I am an ape, not a monkey.” He said, trying to sound stuck up, but ruining the effect by nuzzling the top of her head affectionately “Happy birthday.” He added. Kipo just laughed and nuzzled right back, bumping he head against his chin.

Then she remembered she was supposed to tell them about breakfast being ready.

“Food!” she exclaimed.

“What?” Hugo looked down at her, confused.

“Dad told me to tell you breakfast is ready.” She said him more calmly now, before letting go and Hugo let her drop back down to the floor.

“Come on! Or I’m going to eat all the pancakes!” With that she took off back to the kitchen, followed by her mom’s laughter.

She skidded back into the kitchen just as her dad was done setting the table. Kipo sat down at her place at the table and looked at her stack, it was taller than all the other stacks at the table and her Dad had written ‘Happy Birthday’ on the topmost pancake with sirup.

“Awwwwwwwww, thanks Dad!” Kipo said, beaming at her father, before starting to eat as the rest of her family sat down at the table.

“I got everything ready for later, we just need to pack a few more things and then we’ll be ready to go.” Song said in between bites.

Kipo immediately perked up. This was her parents present to her for her tenth birthday, her very first trip into the city. Well, since she had been a baby anyway, but she didn’t remember that, so it didn’t count.

So far, her parents had only ever gone into the city if strictly necessary, and only once Kipo had been old enough that Hugo could take care of her on his own for a day. They had been short trips since her parents had been unwilling to leave their children alone for too long. Later, once Hugo had been nearly fully grown, he had sometimes gone with either of them so there was an adult watching her, they had still been short trips, her parents too aware of the dangers of wandering too far and running into something - or someone - that could cause them trouble.

However, since Kipo had befriended the timbercats their trips had gotten marginally longer, sometimes taking an entire day instead of just a few hours, with Song and Lio comfortable in their knowledge that their children would be well protected should something happen to them. Sometimes they even took some of the timbercats with them, if they found something heavy or bulky they wanted to bring home, like that one time with the piano.

Kipo had always complained about being left behind, she wanted to see the city! Explore everything there was to see! But she also understood why her parents didn’t want her to come with them, it was dangerous and Kipo wasn’t great at recognizing dangers, even though she was great at defending herself.

But now she was old enough that her parents trusted her to know when to run or hide and how to avoid dangerous situations, therefore they had promised to take her to the city as a birthday present and Kipo was incredibly excited! She was ready! And she would prove to her parents that she could behave and not get into trouble so they would take her along more often! Today was going to be perfect.

~~~

Kipo was standing in her living room, letting her mom fuss over her during their last few minutes of preparations.

“Are you sure you’ll be warm enough? I know you usually don’t need a jacket, but it’s been kind of chilly lately.” She asked, for the third time.

“Mom, I can just grow fur if I need to warm up.” Kipo replied, slightly annoyed, this might be her first time in the city, but it wasn’t her first time being outside.

Her mom gave her a kiss on the top of her head.

“I know honey, I just want to make sure. You remember the rules we set up for today?”

“Always make sure I stick with one of you, don’t wander out of your line of sight for too long, don’t try to befriend any mutes without talking to you first to see if they might not be dangerous.” Kipo listed off with a pout. The last one she thought she should be insulted about, she only tried to befriend mutes occasionally, she had learned by now that most of them, especially the ones that couldn’t talk, would generally only see her as food.

That didn’t mean she wasn’t disappointed.

“And remember Kipo, just because you can hear or smell us, doesn’t mean that we know where you are. You do have the best nose out of all of us.” Song smiled, booping Kipos nose with her finger.

Kipo giggled.

“All ready?” Lio asked.

“We have been ready for 10 minutes, Song has just been busy trying to make sure Kipo won’t disappear on us. Which, given her track record, I’m sure she will do anyway.” Hugo answered, a look on his face somewhere between amused and resigned.

“Will not!” Kipo protested, she was determined to be good today.

“We will see about that.” Hugo grinned at her.

She stuck her tongue out at him in retaliation. He returned the gesture.

Song snorted.

“Well, let’s go then.”

With an excited noise Kipo dashed to the door, before turning around, shouting “Come on! Adventure awaits!!” and running outside.

Lio rubbed his hand over his face, while Song laughed.

“Told you.” Hugo just commented.

It was definitely going to be an exciting day.

~~~

In the ruins of a crumbling city, above terrifying mutes and surrounded by makeshift weapons a young girl was sitting in her temporary home.

Her stomach grumbled.

She knew her rations were running low.

She grabbed her staff and started preparing, tugging the wolfskin around her head tighter in an illusion of comfort.

It was time to once again make the dangerous journey out of her hideout to find food.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Technically I wanted to make Wolf introduction into this story into one chapter, but the Oaks decided to get all domestic on me, so it's going to be two chapters.  
> At least I hope, I haven't actually written the second part yet.


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kipo makes a new friend and consideres grand theft auto.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two chapters in two days? It's more likely than you think!

Half an hour later the Oak family finally emerged from the woods out into the early morning sun, which painted the ruins in front of them in pale yellow light, that was gleaming off broken windows.

Kipo, who had been excitedly skipping along at the front of the group, came to a halt, as she stared at the scene before her with bright eyes. She was still bouncing in place, too much energy and excitement making it hard for her to stand still.

She squealed in excitement.

“This is so cool! I want to explore everything!” She exclaimed.

She watched her father pull a face out of the corner of her eyes.

“We will explore as much as we can today, but please Kipo, remember to not be too loud, I know you’re excited, but the mutes that have claimed the city as their territory are not exactly tolerant of intruders, human or mute.” He said gently from where he had stopped next to her.

“They barely tolerate each other.” Hugo huffed, “You would think the mutes up here would know to stick together, but they just keep waging wars instead, both with other factions and in their own groups.”

“Is it really that bad?” Kipo asked.

“They do attack each other pretty frequently.” Song said, “We’ve seen turf wars nearly every time we’ve been to the city… Let’s just hope today won’t be too bad, we’ll just stay far away from excessive noises, or explosions… especially the explosions.”

Kipo didn’t understand why the mutes would fight each other, wouldn’t it be much nicer if everyone got along and was friends instead? However, she also understood that wasn’t how the world worked. Her parents had made sure she understood that not all people were as friendly or open as Kipo and a lot of times they would do things only for their own gain, with a complete disregard of how their actions would affect others.

Kipo understood that, she did.

It didn’t mean she wasn’t determined to try and show everyone she met that being friends and helping each other was much nicer than constantly fighting.

When she had told Hugo that she was planning to befriend as many people as she could once she was allowed to roam the world more freely, he had given her a weird look. He had seemed kind of sad, but there was something else she couldn’t quite place.

He had told her, that that was all good and nice, but she needed to accept that some people wouldn’t want to be her friends, wouldn’t understand why she was so kind and would only see it as a weakness and try to use her kindness against her, and no matter how much she tried, she wouldn’t be able to change those people’s minds.

Kipo didn’t really want to believe him, but her big brother wouldn’t lie to her about this, so she decided to keep it in mind, but she would also not give up her hopes until she was forced to. She was stubborn like that.

They begun walking deeper into the city and Kipos excitement came back with force, she couldn’t wait for her very first exploration of the city.

~~~

Kipo had gotten herself into trouble, but it really wasn’t her fault!

So maybe she had gotten distracted by a cool building she had seen in the distance, and maybe her family had been distracted by something else and maybe she forgot to say something when she took off to get a better look, but to be fair, she was distracted by this really cool looking building in the distance. It was a skyscraper with a built-in waterfall! Who wouldn’t be distracted by that!

How could she have known that that was mute territory? And how could she have ever guessed that said mutes were currently fighting another group of mutes???

Or maybe she had just ignored the noise of yelling and that weird smell in the air because she was too focused on the cool building.

Hugo was going to tell her ‘I told you so’ for the rest of eternity, she could feel it through their sibling bond. They would be old and gray, and he would still remind her of her first time in the city, when she disregarded every single one of her parent’s rules at once and got herself into trouble and how he told her so.

But first she had to somehow sneak away from where she was hiding behind some debris without getting noticed by the frogs in suits or the skunks on bikes that seemed hellbent on destroying this part of the city. Or maybe they were just trying to destroy each other, and the city was collateral, that was also entirely possible.

The good news was, none of them had seen her yet, the bad news, she couldn’t use her jaguar form, because the smell from the skunks was just too overwhelming for her better nose, even for her human nose it was bad.

They did have pretty awesome bikes, which redeemed them from the smell, though, Kipo suspected she was too small to actually ride one. Too bad.

There! One of the frogs had just tackled one of the skunks down from their bike and all the attention was on them now, this was Kipos chance.

Keeping low she ran away from the fray and into what looked like an old food store, she managed to slide around the corner and hide behind the wall just as one of the frogs started looking into her direction.

“Could have sworn I heard something.” They mumbled, before getting distracted by one of the skunks swinging a pipe at their head.

Kipo let out the breath she had been holding and turned to walk deeper into the store, with some luck there would be a back door, or crumbled wall through which she could get out. Otherwise she would have to make an exit, but she really wanted to avoid causing that much noise.

She had wandered quite far in at this point, when she suddenly heard something falling and quiet swearing. It didn’t sound like one of the mutes from outside.

Kipo considered just ignoring it and sneaking away for a split second, before her curiosity got the better of her and she started sneaking around to the shelves behind which she had heard the noise.

Someone was crouching on the floor, rifling through some boxes, it seemed to be a child a few years younger than Kipo, though, she wasn’t sure, since they were wearing a cape in the shape of a wolf… wait, was that skin? Kipo was torn between being grossed out and starstruck.

She settled on cautiously awed, since this child had at some point apparently killed and skinned a mute. That was both impressive and slightly worrying.

She should say something, before they turned around and noticed her, she didn’t want to startle them.

“Hi, who are you?” Kipo opted to say.

With a yelp the girl, Kipo could see that now, spun around and backed up a few steps, pointing a staff with a scorpion stinger at her.

Whops, seemed like Kipo had startled her anyway. She lifted her hands in a gesture that she thought conveyed she wasn’t trying to hurt anyone.

Once the girl got a good look at her she relaxed a bit, but still pointed her weapon in Kipos direction.

“Where did you come from? What do you want from me?” she asked.

“Through the entrance? I was just trying to get away from the fighting, I didn’t know someone was in her, I didn’t mean to startle you, I’m sorry, also is that a real wolf skin?” Kipo thought she might be talking a tad fast.

The other girl just stared at her, before slowly answering, “So… you just… happened to be here? While the Mod Frogs and Scooter Skunks are fighting? Do you have a hideout around here or something?” She didn’t answer the question about the skin Kipo noticed.

At least she now knew what the mute groups outside where called.

“Well, no, it’s funny actually… I got kind of distracted by a cool thing and wandered right into the fight, but at least no one noticed me, and I managed to duck in here while they were busy with each other.” Kipo thought back on what the girl had asked her, “Wait, do you live here? Or nearby?”

The girl was staring at her in disbelieve, at least she had lowered her staff.

“So, you’re trying to tell me you just walked into a fight between mutes groups, because you were distracted? Are you stupid?! You could have been killed! That is so incredibly reckless!” 

Now that was just rude. Kipo frowned slightly.

“I’m pretty sure I could have gotten out even if they had spotted me.” She tried to defend herself.

“Sure, you and what army. There is no way you could have escaped with two mute factions there, they would probably just have killed you.”

Kipo wanted to tell the girl that she was perfectly able to defend herself with her mute powers, but hesitated. Her parents had made it very clear that she shouldn’t just reveal her half muteness to anyone she met, it had been fine with the Timbercats, but that was probably an exception, according to them.

But this was another child! She was sure there wouldn’t be any harm in telling her.

She opened her mouth to defend her honor, when there suddenly was another voice.

“I swear I just heard someone talking in here, maybe it’s some of those damn skunks, trying to get the drop on us.”

“Out of an old store? I doubt it… Are you sure you aren’t just hearing things?”

Kipo and the girl exchanged a look, they both knew getting found by whoever was coming their way was a very bad idea.

The wolf girl grabbed her bag and stuff and waved for Kipo to follow her and then put her finger to her lips.

Kipo wasn’t stupid, she knew they had to be quiet.

Together they snuck to a back door that was slightly ajar, looking closer Kipo saw a box was propping the door open, this was apparently where the other girl had come inside and was now planning to leave through.

Quietly she opened the door, or at least she tried to, on the last few centimeters the old hinges on the door seemed to decide now was the perfect time to fail them, and with a crack the door broke off the wall, crashing to the floor despite the two girls lunging for it.

The noise echoed loudly through the room as both of them stood there, frozen.

Then fast steps approached and they whirled around, one of the Mod Frogs skidded around the shelves and stared at them, a second one followed.

The first one pointed at them.

“Humans! I told you I heard something!”

Kipo felt someone grab her arm, she looked down to see the other girl had taken a hold of her, “RUN!” she yelled and started dragging Kipo through the door, it only took a moment for Kipo to start moving on her own, but the other girl didn’t let go yet, instead dragging Kipo with her down the street. She was surprisingly fast with her short legs. She wasn’t even wearing shoes Kipo noticed.

“GET BACK HERE!” she heard the frogs yell behind them, and turning back slightly she saw them in pursuit. Kipo had just enough presence of mind in order to notice the tongue coming towards her and ducked. It missed her by inches.

“We’re nearly there, don’t stop moving!” her new friend yelled.

They were coming onto a corner and just as they rounded it another tongue whipped out at them, this time aiming for the smaller girl, who whirled her staff and managed to hit it with the stinger fastened on top of it.

The frog behind them yelped, before falling over their now limp tongue, the second one reacting to late and stumbling over their downed compatriot.

“Woah! Nice move!” Kipo laughed and the other girl grinned at her.

They didn’t stop running, but after rounding another corner the wolf girl finally slowed down and let go of Kipos arm.

“We’re here, follow me” she said and Kipo noticed they had reached a giant skull. She looked at it slack jawed. Of course she knew about mega mutes, she was one after all, but somehow she never considered that their skulls could just be laying around.

“Come one, we don’t want to wait until those bird brains get back up, they won’t follow us in here.”  
She had climbed up the skull and was looking down at Kipo, who hesitated, thinking about how much her parents would worry, but she didn’t just want to leave this strange girl on her own, so she followed her up the skull. Who knew, maybe she would meet some more people, after all there was no way a girl even younger than her was just living on her own.

She had wanted an adventure and to make new friends after all and this definitely fulfilled both of those categories.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am a liar.  
> I have lied to both you and myself.  
> This part of the story is going to be at least three chapters, so stay tuned.


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trauma's a bitch

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I made myself sad with this chapter, have fun!

She really didn’t know why she had brought this stranger into her hideout.

Or well, she knew why, she just didn’t know if that had been such a great idea anymore.

The other girl had followed her instructions about avoiding the deathstalkers with surprising ease, mentioning something about being experienced with calming herself down.

Something about a jaguar?

Maybe they were similar to the deathstalkers and some lived near Kipos home.

Anyway, they had made their way to the old apartment she had claimed as her own after she had escaped the Mod Frogs that first time, nearly two years ago now, and had been living in ever since.

It was safe, at least as safe as any place could be on the surface, and none of the intelligent mutes came anywhere near it, too scared of the swift death the scorpions would bring them.

She tugged the pelt closer around her shoulders.

They would never find her here. She had made sure to get as far away as possible as fast as possible after she had killed her, determined to never get hurt like that again.

And now she was sitting on the old couch, with a stranger bouncing around her home, touching and inspecting everything she could get her hands on, all the while chattering excitedly about the things she had been using to defend herself.

Apparently, most of them had been intended as toy. A waste of potential in her opinion.

Well, she would be gone soon, the Mod Frogs would lose interest after some time and then she would be alone again.

She ignored the twinge of something at that thought and tried to tell herself it was relief.

She had been explaining to the excited girl for what she had been using the ‘Teddy Bear’, as she had called it, when she suddenly stilled and went quiet.

“Uhm… you know, I just noticed, I don’t even know your name? I’m Kipo!”

Ah, right. A name, most people seemed to have one of those.

She shrugged.

“Oh, come on, you got to have a name, everyone has a name!”

Her… family had always just called her ‘girl’, or ‘human’, or simply ‘she’, with an intonation to their voices.

She now knew it was because they had never planned on keeping her around, and she didn’t remember the name she had had before them. She knew she had had one, but she was so young, and it was lost now, together with most of her memories of the time before the wolves.

The other girl, Kipo, took her silence in stride.

“Well! If you don’t have one, or don’t want to tell me that’s fine! I’m just going to call you Wolf then! Because of your cool cape!”

There really was no tampering this girl’s excitement, was there?

She could live with a nickname like ‘Wolf’ for a while, Kipo would be gone soon anyway.

“Also, where are your parents? Or the people you live with? This room seems a little small for multiple people, do they live in the same building?”

She raised an eyebrow at Kipo, “I live alone, I don’t need other people.”

~~~

Kipo nearly fell over where she had been playing around with one of the jump ropes while talking with Wolf. She stared at the other girl.

“What do you mean you live alone? You’re a child! Children shouldn’t live alone!” Wolf was even younger than her, and her parents hadn’t even let her leave the forest until today.

She should really get back to her family.

That was irrelevant right now though.

“You aren’t that much older than me,” Wolf said defensively, “and you were running around on your own as well, so whatever adults you were with can’t be that great.”

“Hey! I will have you know my parents are awesome! I just happen to be very easily distracted!”

“That’s great, then you can just go back to them later, the Mod Frogs should lose interest soon, so you can leave in about an hour.” Wolf dismissed.

“I can’t just leave you here all on your own!” Kipo insisted. She could take the other girl with her, her parents wouldn’t mind, “You can just come with me! We have space for you, you can live with me and my family!”

“I don’t need a family!” Wolf exclaimed angrily, “I only brought you here because otherwise the Mod Frogs would have killed you! I’m not trying to be your friend!”

She was angry, but there was more to it. Kipo saw the fear and hurt in her eyes. It reminded her of the look her brother would sometimes get, after a particularly bad nightmare, or on those odd days he had, where he seemed so unsure of his place with them.

Kipo decided then and there that Wolf would come with her, whether she wanted to or not. It was for her own good after all!

But first she would try to convince her. Kipo had a feeling just grabbing her and running wouldn’t end well, especially considering the deathstalkers right outside the window.

“I really think you should at least consider it. It’s really nice and safe where we live and there is definitely enough food and space for you.”

Kipo saw her determination waver at the mention of food and heard the other girls stomach give a rumbling sound. Wolf looked down at herself, betrayed.

“You haven’t even known me for a day.” She grumbled.

Kipo blinked, why would she have to know her for her to want her to be safe?

“So? You’re a child- younger than me,” she added quickly when she saw Wolf opening her mouth to protest, “and you’re on your own. Which I know isn’t good, because my parents always told me little children shouldn’t be alone every time I tried to go exploring on my own. Even though that didn’t stop me half the time, and that one time I befriended the Timbercats, so it all worked out!”

Kipo realized she wasn’t making a very good point of why Wolf should come with her.

“BUT! I always had a home and people to go back to! Which is a really nice thing to have!”

The other girl was staring at her with wide eyes.

“You befriended mutes?” she asked in a hushed whisper.

“Yeah! They’re really nice and I stay with them a lot, because their village is really cool to climb around in.”

“Mutes can’t be trusted!” the girl burst out.

“They hate humans and will never accept you as one of them! You’re probably just a plaything for them! When they get bored, they will just discard you!”

“They would never! Mutes have just as much potential for good and bad as humans! I would know, I’m half mute!” Kipo shouted back in defense of her friends.

That was the wrong thing to say.

She had realized this while talking. The other girl obviously had some trauma relating to mutes, but Kipo had been so angry! Her friends weren’t evil! Her brother wasn’t evil! They were her family and she would always defend them.

Wolf stared at her in shock and then took a few steps backwards, away from her.

“You what?”

“Uh… I’m half mute?” Kipo carefully lifted a hand and let her fur grow.

Wolf took another step back.

“Get out.” She whispered.

“But-“

“GET OUT!” Wolf shouted, grabbing her staff and pointing it at Kipo. There were tears in her eyes.

Kipo swallowed and nodded, before backing up to the window that functioned as an entrance to the room, keeping an eye on the distressed girl.

She climbed out the window.

~~~

Once she couldn’t hear Kipo anymore she collapsed on the ground, shaking.

She had let a mute into her home. Well, a half mute, she didn’t know how that worked, but surely that wasn’t any better.

Surely this girl had just been waiting to hurt her, get her back to her mute friend so they could eat her or hunt her or…

The worst thing was that she had allowed herself to consider Kipos offer, she had thought about her situation, the constant fight for survival and for a moment had thought that a safe home with guaranteed food and people sounded nice.

She had always known that was just a fantastical dream though, there was no ‘safe’ on the surface. The safest thing was for her to be on her own.

No one to hurt her, no one to get in her way. Just her. She didn’t need anyone, she had survived on her own for two years, she would continue to survive.

Her stomach grumbled again.

Right, food, that was why she had been away from her hideout in the first place. She looked at the bag she had brought back with her. There were very few edible things in it, she would need to get more and maybe moving around would help her clear her head.

Decision made she got up, grabbed the discarded bag, emptying the things she had gotten onto the floor and proceeded to climb out the window, she looked around. No sign of Kipo. Maybe the deathstalkers had gotten her.

She desperately ignored the feeling of guilt in her gut at that thought and climbed down the ladder.

Kipo was part mute, she would be perfectly fine, she would go back to her family and her mute friends and forget she had ever met her.

Or, a small voice in her head piped up, she would go back and tell her friends all about her hideout, and then they would come for her.

With that jarring thought she realized her hideout was compromised.

Kipo knew where she lived.

She would bring the other mutes there to hurt her, she was part mute herself after all, and mutes can’t be trusted.

Her heart was pounding in her chest, in a distant part of her brain she knew that was bad, but right now she couldn’t remember why. She was just standing there, in the middle of the street, frozen, her head swirling with a million thought about what would happen now. She couldn’t stay here, she had to leave, but where? Would they be able to find her?

Somewhere the logical part of her was screaming to calm down, to move, but she couldn’t bring her body to losten.

She didn’t notice the deathstalker approaching her until it was right beside her, making a clacking sound. She turned her head. Too late, the stinger was already descending. All she managed was a startled scream before her world went dark.


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kipo to the rescue!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I did not proofread this, so I apologize for any mistakes, I just wanted to finally post this chapter

Kipo was sitting on the roof of one of the abandoned houses lining the street, dangling her feet over the edge, and looking at the deathstalkers moving around beneath her, however her mind was on the confrontation with Wolf, her new friend.

She had really messed that conversation up. Hugo had said once, that her lack of verbal filter could get her into trouble if she wasn’t careful, and while he had said it with fond amusement there had also been worry in his eyes.

Kipo knew she had to be careful about whom she told her secret, but Wolf was a child just like her! Living on the surface! Why would she be freaked out by mutes.

She should have known better. Not about trusting the other girl, but about telling her the way she did, just blurting it out.

Kipo dropped her head into her hands with a groan.

Getting Wolf to come back with her would be so much harder now! But she was still determined to do so! Honestly, Wolfs outburst had just shown her that she needed someone to show her some kindness.

Kipo had been raised surrounded by kind people, who had taught her trust and gentleness with their action and confidence and caution with their words. She wasn’t some naïve child, stumbling onto the surface for the fist time in her life, she knew not everyone could be trusted, mute or human, she knew not everyone’s mind could be changed, but at the same time it wouldn’t be right to not at least give someone a chance.

Wolf had obviously put her trust into someone who had betrayed her, so she had closed herself off, had become angry, scared, and distant. It made Kipos heart ache for the younger girl and she was determined to help her.

But how.

Kipo sighed and let herself flop backwards, laying down on the rooftop, legs still dangling. Thinking about the best approach.

Suddenly she heard a startled scream.

Kipo shot back up, that had sounded like Wolf!

She bounced onto her feet and looked into the direction of the noise, shifting into her half jaguar form.

There, a deathstalker, dragging Wolfs motionless form after it.

Kipo assessed the situation, there were a lot of Deathstalkers around, she couldn’t risk a fight in the middle of the street.

She herself would be fine, but Wolf could be hurt, she was completely vulnerable right now.

Kipo decided to follow the deathstalker quietly to see where he took Wolf and intervene if she had to, even if it was on the open street.

As Kipo bounced across rooftops to get closer she spotted Stalky, lying abandoned from where the deathstalker had come, Wolf must have dropped her weapon when she was hit.

Kipo decided to grab it, quietly dropping down onto the street, keeping a careful check on her heartbeat, calm and quiet, don’t let the jaguar control your actions, center yourself in the bonds you have, think about your family, they would miss you, so you have to remain calm and collected and remember your humanity Kipo.

Her family must be worried sick at this point.

She would be back soon, together with her new sister.

Just a little longer.

~~~

Lio was pacing back and forth in the abandoned house they had claimed as a temporary base of operations, waiting for the return of his wife and son, and hopefully his daughter.

It had been nearly three hours now since Kipo disappeared.

When they had first noticed her absence, they hadn’t thought much about it, just chuckled or, in Hugos case, rolled their eyes. They had expected her to get distracted, no matter how much she promised she wouldn’t, Kipo was too curious to stay still for long. No, Kipo running off hadn’t been the problem, the problem was that she hadn’t come back.

Kipo always came back.

It could take a few minutes, or half an hour, but she would bounce back, excitedly chattering about her new discovery, dragging them along to show them with a big infectious smile.

But this time she hadn’t done that, she had disappeared, and they had waited for her as they always did, but she hadn’t shown back up.

That’s when the fear started to set in.

It had begun with Song saying she had a bad feeling about the whole thing, only a few minutes after Kipos absence was discovered, Hugo had made a face and said he felt it too, which had then set of Lio himself, because he trusted their gut feeling.

So now they had holed up in this house and Song and Hugo had gone off to search for their missing child and sister and Lio was left to wait, for them or for Kipo, as at least one person should remain stationary, so the others knew where to come back to.

Lio whipped around as the door opened, Song and Hugo entering.

“Any sign?”

Song shook her head.

“We did see some frogs and skunks having a turf war though and knowing Kipo she somehow ended up in the middle of that.” Hugo mentioned wryly.

“We caught her scent near there and did get as close as we could without getting spotted,” Song added, before Lio could ask, “if she was there she is long gone, the trail was old and we couldn’t pick it back up.”

Lio sat down heavily on an old chair, which creaked ominously, and put his head in his hands.

“That child is going to give me grey hairs.” He muttered.

“I’m sure she’s fine.” Song murmured, coming over to him and putting her hands on his shoulders. “She always pulls through”.

“She does have the uncanny ability to always come out on top and with at least one new friend in any given situation.” Hugo added, trying to reassure himself just as much as his parents.

Lio sighed.

It seemed they didn’t have any other options than to wait and continue searching.

~~~

Kipo had followed the deathstalker for nearly 10 minutes already when it finally reached its goal, an old underground parking lot, full of rusting cars and crumbling pillars.

It didn’t seem very stable, the Timbercats would be appalled at the state of the support beams.

Kipo followed it inside anyway.

The deathstalker deposited Wolf on the ground, before turning towards her and making a few clicking noises, an answering click sounded from somewhere deeper in.

Kipo strained her ears, there was at least one more stalker there, but it wasn’t moving, she squinted into the dark, forcing her eyes to adjust.

There in the back was the second deathstalker, sitting in what looked to be some kind of nest.

“Awwwww,” cooed Kipo quietly, “they’re going to be parents!”

She shook her head.

“Focus Kipo, this might be cute, but they’re about to eat Wolf.”

She looked back at the other girl, wo was beginning to move, a quiet groan escaping her.

Kipo sneaked closer.

Just in that moment Wolfs eyes flew open, Kipo could immediately smell her panic, hearing her heart pounding. The deathstalker focused back on the young girl, raising his tail to sting her once more.

Kipo bolted forward, tackling the other girl away from her attacker and dragging her behind one of the crumbling pillars.

Wolf stared at her with shock clearly written on her face.

“You… why are you here? I told you to leave!” she hissed.

“I wasn’t just going to leave you behind! Especially not after I saw you get attacked!” Kipo hissed back, involuntarily annoyed with the other girl’s attitude.

“But… you’re- you’re part mute… you have a family… why would you even care what happens to me?” she whispered frantically, her breathing coming fast.

“Why wouldn’t I care?” Kipo asked confused, before hearing the skittering steps of the deathstalker approaching them.

“We can talk about that later, you need to calm down or it will find us.”

Wolf just stared at her, a slight trembling running through her. With a start Kipo realized she was having a panic attack.

Not good.

Theoretically Kipo knew what to do to help someone with a panic attack, she had seen her parents help Hugo and each other through them on occasion, but she had never done so herself.

She carefully laid Stalky onto the ground and put both her hands on Wolf shoulders, the other girls eyes snapped to her face.

“Wolf I need you to focus on me now, focus on my breathing and try to match it, can you do that?”

Wolf gave a hesitant nod.

“Good, now tell me 4 things you can see.”

The younger girl gave her an odd look, but complied.

“You, the rusting cars, some debris and this pillar.”

Wolf breathing was calming down, but her eyes were still wide and she was still trembling.

“Very good! Now three things you can hear.”

“Your voice, the deathstalker coming to kill us and… uh…” she focused for a moment “I think there is water dripping somewhere.”

“Two things you can smell.”

“Dust and rust.”

Wolfs breathing was coming evenly now, her eyes were focused.

“One thing you can feel.”

“Your hands are really warm.” She answered calmly.

Kipo grinned at her.

She could hear the deathstalker move around in confusion, having lost track of them.

Wolf looked away from her face uncomfortably.

“You… can let go of me now… thanks.”

“You’re welcome!” Kipo answered, bending down to pick up Stalky and hold it out towards Wolf, who carefully took her weapon out of Kipos hand.

“Let’s get out of here.”

Kipo grabbed Wolfs free hand and began dragging her towards the exit and Wolf let her.

~~~

Only once they were back in Wolf hideout did Kipo let go of Wolfs hand. Wolf took this opportunity to drop onto her couch, where she drew her knees up to her chest and curled into a shaking ball. The worst of the panic was behind her, but she had nearly died and still needed some time to process.

Once she felt like facing the world again, she uncurled and immediately flinched back, as she came face to face with Kipo, who had sat down on the ground in front of her.

She was looking at her attentively, with slitted pink eyes, and two fluffy cat ears turned towards her, a tail was swishing over the ground behind her.

Wolf just kind of stared at her.

“So… how are you feeling.” Kipo asked carefully.

“…better.” A beat. “Why does your face look like that now.”

Kipo blinked at her quizzically, before bringing her hands up to her ears.

“OH!” she exclaimed, and Wolf flinched a little at the volume. “Sorry, I just forgot to change back.” She said sheepishly, her ears and eyes turning back to normal.

“So, you can just… change parts of yourself at will?”

“Well, it’s not quite that easy, I got a lot of practice now, but at the start I had barely any control over when and what would change, but basically yes.” The older girl explained excitedly. Then she added, more timidly.

“You… aren’t scared of me, right? I kind of sprung this on you and I’m sorry… I just sometimes forget this is a big deal to people, since it’s just who I am.”

Wolf thought about that for a moment. Kipo was right that she had been scared, of her and what her existence, her presence in Wolfs life could mean for her, but she had also saved her, risked her own life to help Wolf, even though she didn’t have to, even though Wolf had accused her of being a monster and hat yelled at her.

“It’s still weird, but I’m… not scared of you.”

Kipos face lit up.

“Great! Then you can come with me and we can live together!”

Wolf startled, “Hold on, I never agreed to- “, but she was cut off as Kipo continued.

“And you can meet my family and the Timbercats and I can proof to you that not all mutes are awful, and we are going to be the best of friends, no, even better, sisters! It’s going to be so much fun, I never had anyone close to my age to play with!”

Something at the mention of being sisters jumped in Wolfs chest, her mind going back to her pack and what had happened. But Kipo had already proven she wasn’t like them, had proven she cared about Wolf, even though the girl didn’t know why, she trusted her.

“Okay.”

Kipo was startled out of her rambling. “Huh?”

“I said okay.” Wolf repeated, not meeting her eyes.

Kipo beamed at her.

~~~

It had been five hours since Kipos disappearance and Song was sitting on the roof of their temporary safe house, looking out over the streets.

They had decided to wait one more hour, before going back home and informing the Timbercats of what had happened, so they could comb the city for any sign of her daughter.

Song knew Kipo could take care of herself, and whatever was keeping her from returning, she had a very good reason.

However, the nagging fear that Emilia had somehow gotten a hold of her was stubbornly refusing to leave her, even though the chances of that were near to nothing.

Suddenly a gust of wind carried a familiar scent to Song.

“MOM!” her daughters voice rang out, as she came into view down the street, waving excitedly.

Song vaulted off the roof and towards her daughter, lifting her up into a hug.

“You are in so much trouble.” She grumbled into Kipos hair. “We were so incredibly worried, you better have a good explanation.”

Kipo wriggled in her grasp, freeing her hands so she could hug her mother back.

“I’m sorry, but I did have a very good reason!”

With a light push Kipo signaled for Song to let her go, her daughter turned around lightly and gestured to… another child, standing behind her, clutching a staff with one hand and the hood of a cape, seemingly made of wolfskin in the other, her shoulders were drawn up close to her ears and she looked incredibly tense.

She also looked very young, younger even then Kipo.

“This is Wolf, I met her when she saved me from the Mod Frogs, she doesn’t have anyone or anywhere to stay, so I offered her to stay with us! That’s okay, right?” Her daughter looked at her with pleading eyes.

Song focused on the child Kipo had brought with her, who seemed to tense up even more under her gaze, behind her she could hear steps approaching, Lio and Hugo having heard the commotion and decided to check it out.

She saw Kipo twitch towards them but draw her eyebrows together and look back at the younger girl, staying between her and her family.

Song softened her gaze, “Of course she can stay, and you can tell us the whole story of what happened when we’re home.”

Wolf looked at her with huge eyes, like she couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

Song took a few careful steps towards her, crouching down in front of the scared child.

“Hello Wolf, I am Song, Kipos mother,” she gestured towards the rest of the family, where Kipo had finally gone up to her father and brother to hug them, “and these are my husband Lio and my son Hugo. We would gladly take you in.”

“I… thank you.” The girl said, averting her eyes.

Song smiled at her.

She had a feeling there was much more to this than Kipo was telling her, a child didn’t just end up all on their own without something awful happening, but there was time for that later, for now they were together once more and it was time to go home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been a month and I'm so sorry  
> Updates will probably continue to be slow, since I'm busy with school again  
> I hope you all liked this chapter, one more and the Wolf Adoption Arc is concluded
> 
> Also, season 3 soon!!! I'm so excited!!!! And a little sad that it will be the last one


	16. Chapter 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A lone Wolf aquires a pack

Hugo had been watching Lio anxiously pace around the room for what felt like hours. He himself was sitting on an old chair, which was way too small and uncomfortable, his fingers were twitching, and he wished desperately for his piano, or something to do other than wait. It had been so long since Kipo had disappeared and while he was confident in her abilities Dr. Emilia’s face flashed before his eyes every time he thought about the whereabouts of his precious little sister.

Just when he was about to get up and join Song on the roof, just to feel somewhat useful he heard a shout in what was clearly Kipo’s voice from outside, quickly followed by the sound of Song jumping off the roof.

His eyes met Lio’s and they simultaneously made their way to the front door with hurried steps.

Lio threw the front door open and in fact, there in the distance was his little sister, enveloped in a tight hug from Song.

“She’s okay.” The relieve in Lio’s voice was nearly tangible, and Hugo could feel the weight of worry drop from himself as well.

Lio started towards his wife and daughter, having only eyes for them, but Hugo noticed something else.

There was a girl standing a few steps behind his baby sister.

He tensed, ready to spring into action should she mean them harm, but upon taking a closer look he saw the way she was clutching her cape - was that wolf skin? – and looking generally lost and awkward, watching Kipo and Song.

Well then, seems like Kipo made a friend.

Hugo wasn’t great at guessing the age of humans, especially not children, having only ever been around adults and then watching his little sister grow up, but the girl did look a good bit younger than Kipo.

She was nearly a head smaller, but some of that height seemed to come from the poofy hair peeking out from under her hood, so she might be even tinier.

Neither Song nor Lio had seemed to notice the girl yet, having only eyes for their daughter.

Kipo took a step back from Song and gestured to the girl behind her.

Ah, now both of his oh so perceptive parents noticed the stranger in their midst

Him and Lio were still quite a bit away, but he still heard Kipo clearly when she introduced the girl.

It seemed the trail they had followed to the other mute’s turf war hadn’t led them astray, Kipo really had somehow ended up in the middle of it.

He felt protectiveness for his little sister swell up, he should have been there to help her, to keep her safe, but he hadn’t even noticed when she disappeared. Silently he vowed to not take his eyes of her again the next time they went outside from their home.

Thinking about it, he ought to not take his eyes off of her inside their home either, it would be just like Kipo to get herself into trouble inside their own safe haven.

Now to the other girl, Hugo was glad she had protected his sister, but that didn’t mean he trusted her. She might be a child, but she was wearing the skin of what appeared to be a full grown mute, a wolf at that, as a cape, so she must be quite the capable fighter and having grown up on the surface who knew what could be up with her.

But Kipo had also claimed her as a friend and invited her into their home, he couldn’t really fault her, her heart was too big, much like their parents. Once Hugo would have trusted this strange girl without hesitation, would have just seen a young child in need, but his experience with humans outside the Oaks had only brought him pain so far, so he was going to keep an eye on this newcomer, this Wolf, because he knew his family trusted to easily.

His eyes drifted over to Kipo again, they had nearly reached her and Song now, and his sister made eye contact with him and gave him a cheeky smile, for a moment he thought she would run to them, but then her gaze went back to her new friend and she stayed put.

Kipo trying to make her new friend feel at ease was cute and all, but he would really like to hug her in order to ensure she was really safe and well.

And Song had just allowed this stranger into their home without any follow up questions.

Great.

Was he really the only one with some common sense in this family?

Well, at least Wolf looked like she was doubting the sincerity of Songs statement, so she seemed to have some survival instinct, even though Song was definitely a hundred percent sincere and would probably adopt this child within hours of knowing her.

Who was he kidding, between Kipo and Song he was aware he had gained a new sister just now.

He just hoped she was who Kipo thought she was, otherwise if she would break his sisters’ heart and then he would be forced to drastic measures.

Song took a step towards the young girl in front of her and Kipo took that as her cue that her presence was no longer needed and flung herself at Lio, who had just gotten into easy reach. She stretched out an arm towards Hugo, inviting him into the hug with a grin.

He rolled his eyes for good measure but went willingly to his little sister and father, enveloping them both. Kipo let out a delighted laugh.

“We were so worried, never disappear like that again Kipo, please.” Lio pleaded, with some resignation in his voice.

“Awww, Dad, I promise I won’t if I can help it.” Kipo said nuzzling against him.

“We all know you will get into trouble the second we’re somewhere interesting again.” Hugo muttered, tightening his grip slightly.

“Probably!” Kipo replied cheerfully, “But I made a friend! So, it wasn’t all bad! And I have a really cool story to tell you! It involves giant scorpions!”

Hugo lifted his head away slightly, trying to dodge Kipo’s hand, with which she was gesticulating wildly while talking.

“Of course it does.” He couldn’t help but sound resigned.

Lio chuckled, “Yeah, that checks out.”

Hugo let go of them, and Lio dropped Kipo back down onto her feet.

His sisters face suddenly turned sullen and she glanced back at her new friend, then turned back to them.

“I… kind of messed up with Wolf at first? I think she might have had some bad experiences with mutes, she freaked out when I told her about the fact that I’m half mute.” She muttered, looking at the ground sullenly, “She thinks all mutes are monsters.”

Lio sucked in a sharp breath and Hugo glanced at the other girl, who was shuffling awkwardly in front of Song, who was asking her about her age and what kind of thinks she had in the backpack strapped to her back, if she needed anything that they should get while they were still here and so on.

The girl glanced up and their eyes met, she tensed and looked about ready to flee. Song followed her gaze and met Hugo’s eyes as well. They exchanged a look. Song had always been good at reading people and had easily picked up that the girls sudden fear was connected to Hugo’s presence.

This wasn’t going to be easy.

But when had anything in his life ever been, if Kipo was so hellbent on adopting this stranger into their family then he would find a way to live with her and hopefully they would at least get along somewhat.

Song straightened up.

“Well then, it’s about time we make our way home, this was enough excitement for one day. Wolf here says she has everything she needs with her, so we’ll just go straight back, all right?”

They all nodded or otherwise voiced their agreement, and just like that they were moving towards their home.

~~~

Their track to the edge of the woods was a quiet one, none of them wanting to risk getting caught by the still waring mute factions.

Song was at the front, leading their little group, with Kipo and her new friend walking behind her, the younger child sticking close to Kipo’s side, like she was afraid Kipo would disappear if she was more than half a meter away.

Which, to be fair was a real possibility, however this girl couldn’t know that.

Lio and Hugo were walking in the back, to keep an eye on them both, but mostly Kipo.

Occasionally Wolf would glance backwards at Hugo, giving him a suspicious look, like she really didn’t like the fact that he was walking behind her. If the girl really had such bad experiences with mutes, which was likely considering everything he’d seen on the surface, then that was completely understandable. It still made him feel awkward, and he tried to appear as non-threatening as possible, which wasn’t easy considering he towered over the adults, to this child he must seem gigantic.

After some time they finally reached the forest, and Song disappeared into the relative safety of the trees, Kipo bounding after her, Wolf hesitated for a second, with one last look back at the city, before she straightened up and followed after Kipo.

Lio and Hugo joined them.

No sooner had they gotten a safe distance from the tree line did Kipo start talking.

“I need to tell you all what happened or I’m going to burst!” she threw her hands up dramatically.

Wolf looked at her with wide eyes, like she was seriously concerned for Kipo’s health.

Lio chuckled and Song let out a startled laugh, “Go on then honey, we could use some entertainment for the road.”

Hugo just shook his head fondly.

“Alright then, so, you see, I got distracted by… I don’t remember now, but anyway, I ended up in the middle of this turf war and…”

~~~

By the time they reached the entrance to their hideout Kipo’s story was coming to a close, she was just talking about how she had bravely saved Wolf from the deathstalker and then had convinced the other girl to join them when they arrived.

Kipo was in the middle of her sentence about how she had managed to calm the other girl down from what sounded suspiciously like a panic attack when she stopped to grin at the younger girl.

“You’re going to be so impressed with our home!”

“Impressed with what? That’s just a tree?”

“You’ll see.”

Hugo snorted as Kipo proudly strut forward towards the ivy covering the entrance, Song and Lio watching her with clear amusement in their eyes. She looked ridiculous walking like that.

Wolf had flinched slightly when he had made the noise and was now looking at him. Some of the fear had left her eyes, but she still looked warry.

“You should keep your eyes on Kipo, she’ll be disappointed if you miss this.” He pointed out to her.

Hesitantly Wolf looked at Kipo again, just in time to see the other girl dramatically reveal the gap in the tree leading to their home.

Wolf still looked skeptical.

“It’s a hidden entrance, which is neat, I’ll give you that, but that’s nothing special yet.”

Kipo gasped in mock offense.

“Well then I’ll just have to show you the real deal!” she went up to the other girl and grabbed her arm, dragging her towards the entrance.

For a heartbeat she looked like she wanted to struggle, but then relaxed slightly and let Kipo drag her along.

Song, Lio and Hugo followed.

Kipo burst out the other side of the pathway and released Wolfs arm, to throw up her hands and spin around to face Wolf, she dramatically waved her arms downwards to gesture to the scene behind her with a grin.

Wolf stopped in her tracks to survey the scene and her eyes went wide.

“Okay, I’m impressed now.”

Hugo couldn’t fault her, the clearing had been a sight when they had first stepped foot on it, but by now there was a neat garden growing vegetables and herbs, as well as assorted toys and a small jungle gym the Timbercats had built for Kipo. The house itself was also quite impressive now, much better than the rotting hut they had first set foot into.

“This is our home!” Kipo exclaimed proudly, “and it can be yours too, if you want.”

It was only because Hugo was watching the other girl closely, that he saw the hope and longing flick across her face, because she schooled her features again.

“I… haven’t decided yet.”

“That’s perfectly alright.” Song chimed in from beside him, “If you ever decide you want to leave you can, we won’t hold you prisoner, but just know that our door, or well, our tree tunnel, is always open for you.”

She smiled softly at the girl, who looked like she was about to ask if she was dreaming.

“Come on! I’ll show you around!” Kipo said, grabbing her arm and dragging her off towards the house.

Hugo watched them go.

“She’s still so young… She told me she’s only seven, I hope she will stay, I couldn’t bear the thought of such a young child alone out there.” Song mumbled after they had gotten a fair distance.

“I wonder what happened to her… Kipo’s assessment that she must have gone through something traumatic at the hand of mute seems spot on. She didn’t mind either of us, but she seemed quite wary of you Hugo.” Lio added, a thoughtful frown on his face.

“Yeah, I got that.” Hugo trailed the girls with his eyes, “I don’t know how to make that better though, it’s not like I can suddenly turn human, I’m not Song or Kipo.”

Song patted him on the arm.

“We don’t need you to turn human, she will get used to you fast enough and notice you’re not as terrifying as you might seem at first glance, you give way too nice hugs for that.” She grinned at him.

Hugo rolled his eyes at her.

“I’m sure it will be fine. I just hope she will take Kipo up on her offer, our daughter is already extremely attached.” Lio shook his head, “Well, there is more time for such conversations later, I’m going to go make dinner now.”

With that he began walking towards the house. Hugo and Song looked at each other and decided to follow.

~~~

Much later that evening, long after dinner Kipo had fallen asleep leaning against her mother on the living room couch, tuckered out from a long and exhausting day. Song was softly patting her hair, Lio sitting at her other side.

Hugo was playing a soft melody on the piano, his favorite way to destress. It would be a perfect evening, if not for the young girl, sitting tensely near the door, having picked her spot so she could perfectly survey the entire room.

Kipo had done her best to include her in all conversations, but the longer the day got the quieter and less forward with her answers the little Wolf got, until even Kipo gave up and just let the other girl have some peace, choosing instead to go cuddle with her mother.

Hugo had kept an eye on her the entire time, even when focused on his piano practice, so he was the first one to notice when the girl quietly got up and slipped out the door.

He let the song continue for a minute longer before letting it fade out.

Song looked up and noticed the missing girl immediately. Their eyes met and she gave Hugo a short nod.

Lio who had looked ready to get up himself relaxed back against his wife.

Huge got up with a sigh and went after his newly appointed sister.

He found her on roof, which was also Kipo’s favorite place to think, because it had a great view of the stars overhead.

He just couldn’t figure out how the girl had gotten up there so swiftly, since it was quite the climb for the average human.

No matter, he couldn’t just leave the girl completely unsupervised, might as well try to start a conversation.

He deliberately made some noise when approaching her on the roof.

Her head whipped around, and she tensed.

“What do you want?”

“I’m just here to talk and keep an eye on you.” Hugo replied. “May I sit?”

She looked at him critically, before giving a short nod.

“Keep an eye on me?”

“Kipo might trust you and Song and Lio are way too nice people to ever even consider a child like you as dangerous, but you’ve survived on the surface on your own for what seems like a while, and that skin you’re wearing is a whole other thing. So, while I trust Kipo’s judgement of you, I also refuse to let anything happen to them.”

She gave him a strange look.

“That’s reasonable.”

Huh, he had expected some resistance, some protest, or justifications, but she had just… accepted it.

“You’re taking the fact that I don’t trust you quite well.”

She shrugged, “Because you’re right, I am dangerous, I know what it takes to survive.”

She hesitated.

“Also, believe it or not, I like Kipo, I don’t even really understand why, she just breezed into my life and managed to completely change everything about it within a few hours. And I’m not even upset! I don’t understand it! How does she do that?!”

Hugo let out a laugh.

“Yes, Kipo has always been like that, literally since she has been a baby.”

He smiled fondly, thinking back about how upset he had been about his blanket at first, before looking in Kipo’s eyes, and suddenly all the anger had just melted away.

“No one can ever stay mad at Kipo.”

Wolf looked miserable at that revelation, it was kind of funny.

“I just… I want to stay, but I don’t know if I can trust any of you to not betray me.” She said quietly.

She looked so small in that moment, like the child she was, not the warrior she was pretending to be.

Hugo considered that statement.

Obviously this girl had been betrayed before by someone close to her, a mute probably, if Kipo’s words were anything to go by.

He felt for her, he really did. In a different timeline under different circumstances this could have been him.

Had Lio and Song just abandoned him, left him in Emilia’s clutches, or plain and simple left him behind once it was clear his presence would keep them from living in a burrow he might have ended up being just like this girl.

A terrified child trying to make the world seem a little bit less scary by making himself a little more dangerous, a little more heartless.

“Listen,” he started, “you don’t have to believe a word I say, but please believe me when I tell you, Lio and Song would never abandon anyone in need. They didn’t even abandon me when it became clear my presence would only ever be a burden, no matter how much they try to convince me otherwise and Kipo is a literally ray of sunshine, that girl will always believe in the best in people. She would never betray anyone.”

“And you?”

Hugo gave a smile that had too many teeth to be friendly.

“Life hasn’t been kind to me.” He looked up at the sky, “But they are my family, they have never let me down, and I am sure of their love for me. They have decided you will be part of that family if you want to be, so I will keep an eye on you, in order to protect them, but if you’re genuine in wanting to stay, then I will gladly accept you and protect you just as I accept them.”

The girl looked stricken by this, before also turning her gaze to the stars above.

They sat in silence for a few minutes before she spoke up again.

“I think I would like to try. I don’t know yet if I can just trust you, but I want to try.”

Hugo smiled at her.

Wolf smiled back and then promptly yawned.

He snorted.

“Let’s get back down and get some sleep, this was one exhausting day.”

Wolf just nodded her agreement.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is over 3000 words of Hugo being a good overprotective brother, because that's exactly what the doctor perscribed after the ending of season 3
> 
> I have no idea if this is even comprehensible, I wrote this instead of sleeping (and studying) and am now way to tired to read over it again, so if there are any glaring mistakes please tell me


	17. Chapter 17

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A new morning in a new home

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you all had a great Halloween and are staying safe!

The next morning Wolf woke up on an old mattress on the floor, wrapped in a warm blanket and more rested than she had been in what felt like years.

Kipo’s mother – Song she thinks her name was – had set up a room for her, all the while apologizing that they didn’t have another bed frame and they would get her one soon.

Wolf had been to taken aback and confused to say any of the things she had been thinking, about how she had never slept in a proper bed before, how she didn’t even remember if she ever even slept on a mattress.

The wolfs always had piled together on the floor, in a pile of blankets and pillows, but never on a bed or mattress, as there wasn’t one big enough for all of them.

So, she had just quietly told Song that she was perfectly fine with the mattress and she didn’t need a bedframe if it was going to cause trouble.

Song had given her a strange look and just told her it was no trouble at all, then with a mischievous smile had said they knew some people who would be more than happy to supply her a frame.

Wolf didn’t know what that meant, and she was kind of worried about finding out.

She had to reassure Song a few more times that she would be fine, before the woman had left the room, together with the mute, Hugo, who had been standing in the doorway, keeping an eye on everything.

Keeping an eye on her.

She both appreciated the fact that he recognized her strength and didn’t treat her like a toddler, but it also left a feeling of anxiety in her stomach.

Kipo and her parents had been incredibly kind to her, it had nearly been too good to be true, and then Hugo had talked to her on the roof, where she had escaped to after their display of familial bonds and love had become to surreal for Wolf to bear.

When she had heard him approach, she had thought he was either going to hurt her or try to convince her to come back down with her in that same sweet and understanding way Kipo’s parents had talked to her.

But that hadn’t happened.

Instead he had asked her if he could sit and had told her honestly and openly that he didn’t trust her, all while also making her feel confident in her strength.

It had been a weird mixture of relief and bafflement she had felt in that moment, but it was then when she realized they were most likely all being honest with her, about wanting her there, especially Kipo.

Before she had thought that maybe they were just trying to lull her into a false sense of security – like her wolf parents had.

However, Hugo’s actions wouldn’t make any sense then.

Except if that were also part of the plan.

She really didn’t think they were that devious though, not with a daughter like Kipo.

Now she just needed to show that they could trust her in turn.

Despite all these thoughts Wolf had fallen asleep without much trouble after the emotional toll the day before had taken on her, but now she was awake.

Her stomach growled.

Right, time for breakfast.

Was she allowed to just leave the room? Was anyone else already awake? If not, how would she get food? Could she just… take some? Should she wake someone up?

Wolf shook her head, first things first, see if anyone’s awake.

She quietly opened the door and peeked out, there was nobody in the hallway and the doors to Kipo and Hugo’s bedrooms were closed.

She soundlessly stepped out of her room and made her was towards the stairs into the living area of the Oak family.

No sooner had she reached the stairs did she start to smell food.

Somebody was cooking.

She snuck down the stairs and towards the kitchen.

The door was cracked open and she could make out somebody moving around inside.

Carefully she opened the door the rest of the way and made her way inside.

Kipo’s father – what was his name? Leo? Lio? – was standing at the stove cooking bacon, eggs, and some green stuff.

Wolfs mouth began to water at the sight and smell.

Lio hadn’t noticed her yet, and she was thinking about how to best draw attention to herself when her stomach took that decision from her with another loud growl.

~~~

Lio had woken up early today, his mind still occupied with memories of worrying about his daughter safety and then with curiosity and concern about the stranger she had dragged along in the wake of her reappearance.

Bottomline was, he couldn’t fall back asleep, so he decided to get up and start breakfast.

Song had grumbled when he had left the bed, cracking open one eye to look at him.

“Just starting breakfast early today, go back to sleep” he had given her a quick kiss and she had sighed and done just that.

Lio didn’t bother putting on proper clothes yet, choosing to remain in his pajamas, which just consisted of an old comfy shirt and some loose fluffy pants with little paw prints on them.

He made his way out of the room and into the kitchen, Song and his bedroom being the only one on the ground floor, with Kipo, Hugo and now also Wolf having their rooms on the top floor.

He set up his ingredients and began cooking, counting on the smell to wake up the rest of his family sooner or later and bring them into the kitchen with him.

He had been cooking for a few minutes, fully absorbed in his task when he suddenly heard a noise behind him.

Usually no one would sneak up to him, Kipo being too energetic, Song too considerate and Hugo too… well, big to really go unnoticed.

Startled he turned around but relaxed again when he saw the newest member of their family standing just inside the door, looking like a deer in headlights and a small, nearly unnoticeable blush rising to her cheeks.

Lio heard the noise again and realized it was Wolf’s stomach. Apparently the young girl was hungry.

“Good morning, I hope you like eggs, bacon and some homegrown vegetables for breakfast.” He gave her a soft smile.

Lio loved his daughter dearly, but how she had somehow managed to find the single most traumatized person he had ever met and not only earn her trust, but also got her to trust him, Song and Hugo enough to follow them home was beyond him.

Then again, Kipo had befriended an entire group of mutes at age 5 and they had since become her most steadfast allies and loyal friends to their entire family, so he really shouldn’t be too surprised.

Hugo never seemed to be when these things happened for some reason.

The point was, Lio knew he had to be careful around the girl, not only because she was incredibly traumatized and he didn’t want to make her want to leave, but also because she was still a stranger in his home. A child as well, yes, but also someone who had survived years on the surface on her own.

Lio wasn’t a fool, and while his heart went out to this girl and her history, he was going to be cautious around her for now.

Of course he would never show her that he didn’t trust her fully, she didn’t deserve the distrust after all.

Wolf looked at him, then her eyes flitted to the stove, then back to Lio, she seemed to think about what to say for a moment, then…

“I’ve never really had any vegetables before.”

Lio blinked at her, she was stubbornly looking directly into his face, refusing to avert her eyes like this was a challenge she was trying to win.

At last Lio found his voice again.

“I’m guessing that wasn’t really something you had control over… but would you please… explain it to me anyway how that happened?”

“The… people, I used to live with weren’t really fans of green stuff, and when I was on my own it was hard enough to find any food at all. I never needed them before!”

Lio took a deep breath, he had noticed that the girl seemed small and thin for her age, but hadn’t really put much thought into it, just considered it a side effect of living on her own.

“You seem to have taken very good care of yourself all things considered, but vegetables are important, especially for children, otherwise you might not grow properly.” Lio said carefully.

Wolf just looked at him.

“It has something to do with the vitamins in the vegetables? If you want, I can explain it to you later in detail.”

She seemed to consider this, then shrugged.

“Sure, might be useful.”

Lio chuckled.

“Well then, time for breakfast.”

Wolf looked hesitant.

“Shouldn’t we wait for the others?” she asked.

“I made enough for everyone, their noses will wake them up soon enough I would guess.”

“Their… noses.”

“You will realize that most of the people in this house have better senses than the average human, therefore hiding food from any of them is quite literally impossible.” He told her, putting on a fake serious face and voice.

“I… wasn’t planning to hide food?” the girl answered with a quizzical look on her face.

Oh well, they would have to work on humor with her.

“I was mostly joking, not about the nose thing though.”

“Oh.”

They looked at each other awkwardly for a moment.

“So, food?”

“Food.”

With that Lio began preparing a plate for her.

~~~

Wolf and Lio were sitting in comfortable silence while eating, Wolf actually quite enjoyed the assortment of vegetables on her plate, even if she couldn’t tell what they were.

One of them looked like a tiny tree, she liked that one.

Eating it made her feel like a giant.

Not that she would ever tell anyone that, they would think she was being childish.

She turned her head when she heard soft footsteps approach the door and saw Song enter the kitchen.

“Good morning.” The older woman smiled at her, “how did you sleep?”

“I slept fine, thank you for the room.” Wolf answered, trying to be polite.

Song’s smile widened at that, “That’s good to hear.”

She walked up to her husband.

“And good morning to you too!” she kissed him on the cheek.

“Morning love, food’s on the stove, just leave something for the kids.”

“I don’t think I could eat all that if I tried.” She answered with a laugh.

Wolf observed the entire interaction with curiosity, her head leaned slightly to the side.

She couldn’t help but compare Song and Lio’s relationship with the one of her wolf parents.

They had never been this open in their affection, always rigid and strict, standing next to each other as equals, but always without touching.

Wolf didn’t think she had ever seen them this relaxed, except for when they were asleep.

Affection between the cubs had come easier, but even here there was some distance, due to their parent’s tendency to make them compete with one another.

Wolf was torn from her thoughts when loud footsteps started coming down the stairs, there was the loud thud of someone having jumped the last few steps down and then Kipo came skidding into the kitchen.

“MOM! Wolf isn’t in her room!” The girl exclaimed, slightly panicked, “I wanted to get her for breakfast, but she’s gone!”

Wolf blinked, she hadn’t expected Kipo to get this upset at the possibility of her leaving.

“Kipo, calm down and look to your left, she’s right there, honey.”

Kipo’s head whipped around and Wolf startled slightly when she saw the intensity in her eyes.

“…good morning?” she tried.

Kipo started beaming.

“You’re still here! I was worried you left!”

“Well… I didn’t?” Wolf really didn’t know how to react to the obvious joy Kipo was showing just because she hadn’t left in the middle of the night.

Thankfully, she didn’t have to, because in that moment Hugo entered the kitchen.

“Not everyone makes as much of a ruckus as you when they get up, now go grab some food and stop blocking the doorway.” He turned to Wolf, “Good morning.”, before proceeding to physically shove Kipo further into the kitchen.

Kipo turned her head to him and stuck out her tongue at him, without making any attempt to get away or move on her own.

Hugo just rolled his eyes.

Wolf was aware that she probably looked incredibly confused.

Lio leaned over to her, an amused look on his face.

“Welcome to the family Wolf.” He grinned at her.

She gave him a tentative smile back.

Maybe she could get used to this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Exams have been kicking my butt the entire month of october, but now I have holidays, so I am back!  
> Might even get another chapter out within a week, but I won't promise anything.
> 
> Also I've reached 102 pages on the word document I'm writing this story in, never thought I would ever write such a long story, but here we are!  
> And I still have so much planned! We aren't nearly done with this story!


	18. Chapter 18

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wolf and mutes don't mix.  
> Or do they?

It had been a few days since their adventure in the city, and since Wolf had joined them in their little hideout.

The young girl had been shy and withdrawn at first, visibly unsure of her place in the house and their dynamic, but Kipo and Lio had done a wonderful job of getting her to open up a little more.

Obviously, there was still much she hadn’t told them, and they had a long way to go before she would fully trust them, but Song was confident that with time Wolf would be fully comfortable in their family.

Though today might test her fragile trust in them.

Since Wolf had arrived she had been sleeping on a spare mattress they had kept around just in case, said mattress had been laid directly on the floor, and despite Wolfs assurances that she was fine with that, Song wanted to give her a proper bedframe and maybe some other furniture as well.

Like a wardrobe, and a bedside table, where she could put her stuff.

Though, she hadn’t brought much, Song was planning on getting Wolf some more things. Clothes for one, maybe some toys, though, how well received those would be was debatable.

She would have to figure out when the girl’s birthday was.

At least the furniture they could get her already, or at least they could commission them from the Timbercats.

And that’s where Song’s concerns about today stemmed from.

They had all realized from the beginning that Wolf had some serious trauma concerning mutes, which had only become more obvious the longer she had stayed in their home.

Wolf had been overly cautious about Hugo for one, granted, the mandrill towered over her, being nearly three times her size, but she was fine with his presence when she had noticed him in a room beforehand, however when he managed to sneak up to her or otherwise take her by surprise she would flinch away, assuming a stance that looked ready to bolt any second, before recognizing Hugo and relaxing again.

At least somewhat, she was always slightly tense around him, though it had gotten better.

Since the first time this had happened Hugo had taken to making sure Wolf would notice him in a room or hear him approach, so he wouldn’t startle the girl.

He had tried to pretend her obvious fear of him didn’t affect him, but Song had found him one evening sitting at his piano, just staring at the keys in thought and not playing.

She had sat down next to him and asked him if something was wrong. He had looked at her for a moment.

“I am unsure of how I can make ensure that Wolf knows I mean her no harm. Unless she causes any of you harm of course.” He admitted quietly.

Song slung an arm around his shoulder, or at least as far as it would go and gave her oldest child a side hug.

“You know how it is with trauma, she isn’t scared of you specifically, whatever mute has hurt her this deeply has definitely left some deep fears in her. I have seen her flinch away from Kipo as well, when she changes forms.”

Hugo had looked somewhat reassured but was still obviously uncomfortable at the thought that anyone could be afraid of him like that.

And now they were getting ready to visit the Timbercats.

Song had already had to stop Kipo from dragging Wolf to meet her other friends right away, because her overexcited daughter hadn’t stopped to consider Wolf’s feeling in this, to engrossed in making sure everyone gets along.

But she had conceded Songs point when she had explained it.

However, five days and many reassurances from Wolf that she would be fine later they were ready to introduce her.

So, they made their way into the woods and towards the Timbercats’ village.

~~~

Wolf was… not scared, that wasn’t the right word, more nervous, but with a certain amount of dread, even though Kipo had reassured her a thousand times that the Timbercats would never hurt her and that they were her friends.

She had decided that she could trust Kipo, even if her carelessly changing between her human and mute characteristics still startled her sometimes.

She still wasn’t too sure about Song and Lio, too wary about the adults possible having hidden motives for taking her in.

Surprisingly enough, even to herself, she trusted Hugo nearly as much as Kipo. The mute had made his motivations and intentions clear from the start and she appreciated that. However she still couldn’t help tensing up when he was in the room, she was too used by now to being afraid of mutes.

Kipo was happily chattering away next to her, currently she was taking about a ‘scratching tree’ that the Timbercats apparently had in their village.

“It’s gigantic! And full of carvings from basically every Timbercat that has ever lived in the village! And there is this giant butterfly that keeps sitting on it, and Yumyan keeps saying it’s the spirit of the tree, but Molly says that he’s being stupid and that it’s just a normal butterfly, and I don’t really care whether it’s the trees spirit or not, I just think it’s really pretty!”

Wolf had no idea who Yumyan and Molly were, but she figured she would find out.

It wasn’t long before they reached the edge of the trees, which opened up into a wide clearing with a bunch of housed carved directly into the trees surrounding it.

It wasn’t even really a clearing, there were still a bunch of trees around, the lower branches had just been carved away and replaced by ornate patterns and well, more houses.

It looked really cool for something made by mutes.

Wolf cast a gaze at the cats mulling around. They were big and fluffy, and Wolf knew in her gut that they could kill her very easily if she took her eyes of them for even a moment.

One cat in particular stood out to her, it was somewhat bigger than the others, with mat gray fur, a blue flannel, and a giant axe… that was also an instrument?

Wolf had involuntarily become very educated in recognizing various instruments when she had moved in with the Oaks, since they had been trying to find one, she liked.

She wasn’t sure yet what she thought about learning how to make noise in a way that sounded nice, it seemed counterproductive to her general goal of being sneaky.

However, this mute had an instrument that was _also _a weapon, she could get behind that.__

__Suddenly the gray cats’ ears perked up and his head turned towards them, Wolf stiffened, ready to bolt, when…_ _

__“YUMYAN!”_ _

__“KITTEN!”_ _

__Kipo shot past her towards the gray cat, who opened his arms and caught her when she threw herself full force at him._ _

__He was only half successful, and Kipo bowled them both over._ _

__They were both laughing cheerfully._ _

__Wolf was frozen where she stood staring at the scene, she was startled out of her shocked state when a warm hand gently landed on her shoulder._ _

__She whipped her head around to look up at Lio, who was gently smiling down at her._ _

__“Yumyan considers Kipo one of his, he absolutely adores her, you don’t have to worry about them meaning any of us harm, including you. You’re family now.”_ _

__Wolf swallowed hard around the lump that formed in her throat at that and gave a short nod._ _

__Lio didn’t take his hand off her shoulder when they started walking into the clearing, right behind Hugo and Song, who at some point had passed them._ _

__Song glanced back at them and gave Wolf an encouraging smile._ _

__She stood up a little straighter._ _

__Kipo was chatting excitedly with the large mute cat, she was also still lying on top of him, he was on his back on the ground and listening attentively to her. A bunch of other mutes were standing around them, watching the scene unfold with amusement clear in their eyes._ _

__Kipo spotted them approaching and turned her head, pushing herself up on her hands._ _

__“OH! I have to introduce you to my new friend!”_ _

__With that she jumped off the large cat, who made a small ‘oof’ sound at being used as a springboard for Kipo, before also pushing himself up._ _

__Kipo grabbed his hand – paw? – and started dragging him towards them._ _

__The mute looked at her in amusement before looking towards them and his eyes locked with Wolfs._ _

__She froze._ _

__The only thing preventing her from turning back and running right then and there was the grounding weight of Lio’s hand on her shoulder, which now gave her a squeeze._ _

__“Take some deep breaths, he’s not going to hurt you.”_ _

__Wolf took in a shuddering breath._ _

__She hadn’t even realized she had stopped breathing._ _

__She still couldn’t take her eyes of the mute approaching her, she saw Kipo frown slightly at her from the corner of her eyes, but looking away from the mute went against every survival instinct she had developed over the last two years._ _

__It simultaneously seemed to take years and seconds before Kipo had brought Yumyan close enough for her liking._ _

__She gave Wolf one last worried look before she turned back to the big cat._ _

__“This is Wolf! I met her when we went to the city on my birthday! She saved my life!” Kipo smiled at her, “She’s absolutely amazing, and she’s survived on the surface all on her own!”_ _

__Yumyan gave her a considering look, then he slowly crouched down until he was more on Wolf’s level._ _

__“It is a pleasure to meet such a mighty warrior! You must truly be one capable fighter if you have not only managed to survive, but also to save Kipo and be accepted into her family!” He told her seriously._ _

__Wolf was startled by the compliment. This mute that was nearly three times her size was acknowledging her strength._ _

__And more importantly, he didn’t attack her._ _

__She blinked at him, still not quite able to form words._ _

__He smiled at her._ _

__“I am Yumyan Hammerpaw, leader of the Timbercats, and any friend of Kipos’ is a friend of mine. You are welcome in our village any time.”_ _

__Wolf gave back a hesitant smile._ _

__“Thanks.”_ _

__Kipo made an excited noise and when Wolf turned her head to look at her she was beaming a blinding smile._ _

__Lio gave a low chuckle next to her and suddenly Wolf knew she was going to be okay._ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote half of this chapter, didn't know how to continue, forgot about it for a while and then wrote the rest.  
> Have some more Wolf trauma and Yumyan being suprisingly perceptive and capable in noticing said trauma.  
> Also Song being an Concerned Mom.


	19. Intermission 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Maybe the kids are alright.

“What do you think it’s really like?”

“What do you mean?”

“The surface.”

Dahlia turned to look at her twin.

“Well, according to Doctor Emilia it’s a lawless warzone, where mutes are constantly fighting for territory and the few humans that live out there are either being hunted or hiding.”

“Yeah, according to Doctor Emilia…” The disdain was audible in Asher’s voice.

“Do you not believe her?”

“I don’t know… I just can’t believe that after two hundred years of basically ruling the surface there isn’t any kind of structure or hierarchy.”

Dahlia was just about to answer, when the door to the abandoned shed at the edge of their burrow opened up.

“Good evening you two.”

“Hey Troy! Done helping out in the labs? How’s it going with the cure?”

“Oh, you know, the Doc thinks she will have one soon.” Troy didn’t sound convinced.

“She’s been saying that for as long as I can remember.” Asher scoffed, rolling their eyes.

They suddenly turned their head to look Troy straight in the eyes.

“Do you believe her? That mutes are just wild savage monsters and the only way to bring peace back to the surface is to turn them all back into normal animals?”

Troy looked taken aback by this question.

After a moment he firmly closed the door behind himself and sat down on a pile of pillows they had dragged into the shed ages ago, a serious look on his face.

“I think… I think she is exaggerating a lot, probably letting her own opinions influence how she sees what is happening up there. But… most importantly, I don’t think that really matters.”

“Why’s that?”

“Because no matter how they’re acting up there, I don’t think it would be right to take their conscience from them like that.”

“Exactly! It’s just not right” Asher exclaimed, sitting up straight, and pointing at Troy.

Dahlia looked contemplative.

“You thought about this a lot, huh?” she asked Troy.

“My dad’s actually the one who brought it up, when I was talking about helping out in the lab. I was pretty excited about the cure before that.” He said sheepishly.

Asher looked delighted about the fact that more people were sharing their opinion. Then they seemed to visibly deflate.

“Isn’t there anything we can do about this? All the adults seem to be firmly on the Docs side… well, except for your dad.”

“I’m sure there are more, but I don’t think we can do anything about it? At least not yet…”

Dahlia looked curiously at him.

“Why not?”

“Well, for one, we’re still kids. Also, Doctor Emilia doesn’t even have a cure yet, without that, she won’t be able to do anything.”

Dahlia nodded.

“Maybe if she keeps making promises and not delivering more adults will start questioning her.”

Asher leaned against their sister’s shoulder.

“You’re taking this ‘questioning of everything you’ve ever been told’ pretty lightly.”

“I trust you two more than I trust Doctor Emilia and everything you said makes sense.”

Asher smiled.

“What even brought on this discussion.” Troy asked.

“I feel like… one day we’re going to have to make a decision about where we stand on this matter, and I would rather have you two on the same page with me then.”

“You able to look into the future now?” Dahlia asked with a laugh.

“Who knows.” Asher answered with a grin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> After this chapter we will get into the Actual Plot, aka, the canon time from the show.  
> Let's see what our ragtag group of protagoinsts is going to experience.
> 
> This will probably be the last chapter I publish this year, unless some kind of miracle happens.  
> So, I hope everyone has a fun new years.  
> Stay safe and healthy!


	20. Chapter 20

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things go wrong

**Nearly 3 years later**

“We should start heading back Song, the sun is starting to set.”

Song stood up from where she had been crouched over a box of ancient toys, trying to see if any of them were still undamaged enough to maybe repair, unfortunately that wasn’t the case.

She stretched her arms over her head and cracked her back, before looking at her husband.

“Are you sure we don’t have a little more time? We haven’t even found anything nice for Kipo’s birthday yet.”

Lio smiled at her, “I’m sure we will find something in time, we still have a few weeks after all, and yes, we really should get going, it’s already later than usual.”

Song looked over towards the setting sun and had to concede that it really was already quite late.

“Alright then, let’s head back.” She readjusted the straps of her backpack and began walking.

Her and Lio made small talk while leisurely making their way through the rubble and ruins of the fallen city that served as their backyard and looting grounds, talking about Kipo’s upcoming birthday party, what kind of cake to make, what to get her and so on, when Song suddenly felt like someone was watching her.

She whipped her head around, eyes, nose and ears transforming to better spot their pursuer and saw…

Nothing.

There was no one there.

She took a deep breath through her nose, but she couldn’t smell anything out of the ordinary and there were no weird sounds going on either.

“Song?” Lio asked, a concerned look on his face.

She shook her head.

“I though… I thought I felt someone watching us, but I guess it was nothing.”

Yet the sense of unease wouldn’t leave.

“Let’s just get home, it’s been a long day.” Lio put an arm around Song’s shoulder and pulled her close.

He gave her a kiss on the cheek before whispering: “Keep the monkey senses, just in case.”

Song smiled at him.

“Yeah, that sounds good.”

The remainder of the walk home had been uneventful, they took a more winded path and kept their eyes and ears (and nose) open, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

The sense of eyes on her never left Song though.

She took one last look around at the forest, before she pushed aside the heavy ivy and walked in.

The ivy fell into place behind them and the feeling of someone watching her vanished.

The unease persisted.

~~~

Unnoticed by the Oak parents, two figures peered out from behind a tree they had been using as cover.

“Jeez, did you see Song’s face? What was up with that?” Zane asked.

When Song had looked around that first time, he had nearly had a heart attack, looking at her distorted features.

“I do not know, but it seems Doctor Emilia’s scent covering spray worked just fine.” Isobella answered.

“Yeah, we should probably head back and tell the Doc that we found them. She’s gonna be really happy!”

Isobella gave a curt not, before turning around and beginning to walk, Zane scrambling to follow, the Oaks none the wiser about the interaction taking place right outside their home.

~~~ **The next day** ~~~

Kipo stretched her arms over her head and yawned widely, sharp teeth in full view. It had been a long day.

Hugo, Wolf and her had gotten up early today, to spend the whole day with the Timbercats, they had wanted to teach them how to properly carve wood.

With an axe of course.

Kipo had been incredibly excited, she had always wanted to wield one of those axes!

Wolf had tried to play it cool and pretend she couldn’t care less about whether or not she got to hack wood with an axe, but Kipo had seen the glee with which she had swung the – much smaller than their usual sizes – axe the Timbercats had given her.

Hugo on the other hand actually hadn’t cared, he had gone with them to play big brother and keep an eye on them.

He had warily watchet them chop away at the wood, nose twitching like he wanted to sweep both of them away from any sharp objects, but in the end, he’d just watched and criticized their artworks.

Always such a snob her brother, Kipo thought with a grin.

“And what are you grinning about now?” Hugo asked from next to her.

“Oh, nothing!” she grinned, “I just had a lot of fun today!”

“I don’t get how swinging around an axe is fun, but good for you, I guess.” The way he said it was supposed to sound sarcastic, but there was an affectionate tone in his voice, showing her, he really was glad they’d had fun.

“Maybe we can even carve something into the carving tree one day!” she exclaimed excitedly.

“I think our carving skills need to improve a lot, before Yumyan let’s us touch that tree.” Wolf remarked with a chuckle.

Kipo pouted, but her siblings just laughed at her.

She tried to keep the pout, but her lips twitched upwards against her will.

After a few more minutes of playful teasing and Hugo making jabs at their art, the entrance to their home came into view.

Kipo froze in place.

The Ivy, which usually covered the hollow tree trunk was partially cut off and the remaining strands were pushed to the side carelessly.

Wolf and Hugo had also stopped and were looking at the damaged entrance.

They exchanged a look.

Wolf quietly adjusted her grip on Stalky to be more battle ready, Hugo also tensed up and Kipo shifted her legs as well as her features, so she could be quieter.

Together they quietly approached what used to be their safe haven.

Kipo peered into the hollow, it was empty. She waved for her siblings to follow as she made her way inside.

She could faintly hear voices, her ears perked up as she strained to listen, but it was still too faint, they seemed to be closer to the house than to the entrance.

They reached the end of the tunnel and Kipo peered outside, her eyes adjusting to the difference in light.

A few branches above the hollow made it nearly impossible to see anything inside if it was day and they didn’t have heightened senses, so Kipo felt relatively secure just staying barely out of sight.

She felt Wolf settle behind her and Hugo peer over both of them.

Her eyes focused on the scene ahead.

In the clearing, a few meters away from the house stood a group of seven people, they were standing in a semicircle around her parents. Except for the woman in the middle, all of them were aiming crossbows at them.

Her mom looked deathly calm, not a twitch of her face betrayed any emotion, it wasn’t a look Kipo had seen often. Her dad on the other hand looked somewhere between anxious and angry.

The woman right in front of her parents began talking again and Kipo heard Hugo’s breath catch behind her.

“Come on Song, was it really worth it? Throwing away your whole live away for a mute? Your home, your friends? I’m sure you haven’t had an easy time up here, scavenging for food and essentials, though, you do have a nice set up.”

The woman’s voice was calm and friendly, but there was something about the way she talked that made Kipo’s hackles rise up.

Wolf looked between Kipo, who had subconsciously started baring her teeth, and Hugo, who had gone completely still, not even really breathing anymore.

“What’s going on?” she hissed quietly.

Kipo startled from where she had been listening to the conversation going on – the woman was still talking – and looked at her sibling, she only now realized how still Hugo was.

“That’s Doctor Emilia.” Her brother said, his voice was shaking, disbelieve and fear audible.

Wolf’s eyes widened, and Kipo’s head shot back around to look at the woman again.

Her parents had warned her about Emilia from the moment she had been old enough to understand what was going on with that, she had been the monster lurking in the dark for so long, that Kipo hadn’t even considered this could be her, but now, looking closely she fit the description of her parents perfectly, down to the overall she was wearing.

Kipo also recognized two of the people that were flanking Emilia as Zane and Greta, who were, according to her parents, the people Emilia had most often do her dirty work.

Kipo’s entire body tensed. They were here for Hugo, they were here to take her brother from them.

A million thoughts swam in her head.

_How had they even found them?_

Wolf lay a hand on Kipo’s furry arm, startling her out of her thoughts.

“Let’s wait and listen for now, they haven’t noticed us yet and you are fast enough to intervene should they try something.” Wolf whispered insistently.

Kipo slowly exhaled and tried to relax a little, Hugo gave a jerky nod behind her.

She focused back onto the conversation.

“Now, are you going to tell us where the mandrill is voluntarily or are you going to be difficult?”

“I wouldn’t tell you where Hugo was, even if I knew.” Song replied coldly.

“You mean he isn’t with you anymore? But he seemed to be so attached to him.” Doctor Emilia said with face sweetness in her voice.

Song shrugged, “He’s an adult now, he left a while ago.”

Kipo knew what her parents were doing, they had discussed multiple plans, depending on the situation and on if everyone had been spotted. This one was her parents pretending that Hugo had left a long time ago and they simply didn’t know where he was.

“Mh.” Emilia said, Kipo couldn’t see her face, but she sounded like she was smiling.

“You see, I would love to believe that, but I don’t. You all were way too attached to each other, and you must have known I was still looking for my runaway research subject, you are way too smart to let that mute out of your sight.”

Her mother was stubbornly silent, her mouth drawn into a thin line. Her father looked about ready to punch Emilia in the face.

Emilia scoffed.

“Oh, come one you two, you’ve been up here long enough, you must have seen all the carnage and destruction these mutes bring to the surface world. It was so much better when humanity was on top, you have to understand that this is the only way to get back some sense of order.”

“Taking away someone’s conscience, erasing their entire sense of self and their intelligence is wrong, no matter how justified it seems!” Her dad grit out. Song grabbed his hand and looked at Emilia defiantly.

The doctor sighed, “Well then, difficult it is, don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

With those words Doctor Emilia pulled out what looked like a water gun, filled with a pinkish substance.

Hugo gasped, “That’s my pheromones!”, panic was creeping into his voice.

Kipo growled.

Song’s eyes shot up, looking directly at them, only now did Kipo notice that her mother’s pupils were red, and her ears were fuzzier than normal.

Recognition flitted over her face and she hurried to look back at Emilia, but it was too late.

Emilia’s head whipped around.

“What was that? Who’s there?” she shouted, squinting into the shadows the three children were cowering in.

“Zane! Greta! Go check if there’s anyone hiding over there.” She nodded towards the hollow.

The siblings froze, unsure of what to do, as the two humans approached.

Those instructions taken care of, Emilia turned back to her parents.

“Where were we?”

That was the last straw for Kipo.

“Kipo, wait-!” Wolf called out, but it was too late.

Kipo launched herself out of the shadow and directly at the taller of the two humans, with a furious roar.

She heard Wolf swear behind her, before her sister followed her, going for the smaller man.

Greta was too surprised to react accordingly to Kipo and was bowled over by her attack, Kipo didn’t bother doing anything more, as she vaulted off Greta’s chest and speed towards her parents.

“MOM! DAD!” she yelled out.

Doctor Emilia’s eyes had widened at her approach and appearance.

“Oh my stars, what have you two done?” she whispered, horrified.

Then her face took on a determined expression.

“Incapacitate her! I need to know what they did to their child!” she ordered the remaining goons, not currently trying to recover from Kipo jumping on them or involved in fighting Wolf.

_“DON’T YOU DARE TOUCH MY DAUGHTER!”_ Song roared.

Her entire body seemed to distort for a moment, before suddenly in her place was a giant monkey.

The entire ground shook as Song stomped down her foot and let out and ear shattering roar. Even Kipo came to a stop, staring at her mother.

This wasn’t the usual form she took when turning mega mute, this was much bigger, with more arms, and she looked angry.

~~~

Lio had been having quite the nice day.

Song and him had been relaxing at home, using the rare hours without their children present to cuddle on the couch and be as affectionate as they wanted without someone pulling a face.

That is, until Song’s had suddenly sat up straight, her ears changing shape and her eyes turning red.

“Someone’s here.” She’d said, her voice strained.

They had gotten up and walked outside, just to be met with Emilia of all people.

So much for a pleasant day.

And now they were here, his wife transformed in a way she never had before, Emilia already scrambling to get back up from where she’d fallen over, and his children in more danger than they’d likely ever been in their entire lives.

Lio swallowed down the urge to try and see if Song was doing all right and ran over to his oldest daughter, who was standing frozen, staring wide eyed at her mother.

“Kipo!” He said grabbing her shoulders, her gaze snapped to him, her slitted pupils focusing on him.

“Where are your siblings?” Lio asked urgently.

“They’re…” Kipo looked back toward the entrance, where Wolf had managed to knock out Zane and was now dancing around Greta, trying to keep the giant woman busy.

He couldn’t see Hugo.

“Where’s Hugo?” He felt panic rising.

“He- he’s still sitting in the tunnel, he hasn’t moved – Why hasn’t he moved?” Kipo remarked, sounding confused.

Lio could think of a few reasons why Hugo hadn’t moved, the main one currently trying to avoid getting squashed by his wife.

“Come on.” He grabbed Kipo’s paw and started running towards the exit, Kipo following along.

“WOLF!” He shouted, “DISENGAGE!”

The young girl reacted almost immediately, tripping Greta up and running towards them.

Just like that they reached the tunnel.

Lio let go of Kipo and gently laid a hand on Hugo’s cheek.

Hugo startled and looked at him.

“Hugo.” He said softly. “I need you to get these two to safety.”

“WHAT?” Kipo exclaimed from next to him. “But what about you and mom?”

Another roar rang across the clearing.

Lio carefully didn’t look.

“Please.” He quietly begged his oldest.

That seemed to shake him from his stupor. He nodded, grabbing Kipo and throwing her over his shoulder.

Wolf looked at Lio, sad resignation in her eyes, before climbing onto Hugo’s back by herself.

Kipo was struggling, protesting against going, but Hugo was holding her fast.

“We’ll come find you once it’s safe, now hurry!”

As Hugo turned tail and started sprinting away, faster than Lio had ever seen him run, Lio turned around, to take in the scene in front of him.

Greta was getting to her feet and Zane was also slowly coming to with a groan, their eyes locked onto him.

Further back Song was trying to shake of Emilia, who had somehow managed to climb up one of her arms, while the remaining humans were firing arrows at her.

Emilia was still holding on to that pheromone weapon, aiming it at Song’s face.

Lio closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

It might be a while before he would see them again, but at least his children were safe.

With that thought in mind he opened his eyes again and prepared to make sure no one could follow them until they were far enough away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> @everyone who kept commenting about how much they were looking forward to seeing the Oaks adopt Benson and Dave and the whole family being together and bonding...  
> I'm sorry.


End file.
